Month: January 2013

California Senate President threatens Microsoft.

…And unlike Ed Morrissey, I’m not that sympathetic.  Because do you know what the problem is with pursuing a “throw other people to the crocodile strategy?”  It’s that the endgame’s pretty predictable.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is not backing down from a request for information about Microsoft’s dealings with California, a gesture that many interpreted as a warning to prospective Sacramento Kings buyer and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

After reports emerged that Ballmer was one of the investors seeking to purchase the Kings and relocate them to Seattle, Steinberg sent a letter to the Department of General Services asking for data about California’s contracts with Microsoft and the monetary value of the state’s past purchases from the technology giant.

Fifteen years ago Steinberg would have simply complained a bit that a sports team was moving out, but not too strongly; after all, there were plenty of sports teams that wanted to go to California.  Then again, fifteen years there were more people to throw to the crocodile.

Moe Lane

Our unfolding adventure in Mali.

These three quotes, when taken in all at once, seem to somehow resonate.

Byron York wants you to read the two NYT pieces in reverse order than I do… which pretty much illustrates the current foreign policy disagreement in the Republican party.  Byron presumably wants people to note that we’re being drawn into intervening in Mali despite the fact that the country is falling apart, and he presumably is against intervention on those grounds; I want people to note that Mali is at least falling apart because we – and by ‘we’ I mean ‘the Obama administration’ – messed up our commitments there, and now an actual American ally* is going in their to clean it up. Continue reading Our unfolding adventure in Mali.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D, IA) cuts and runs.

This gets the coveted Moe Lane “…Dude.”:

To those wondering: he wasn’t on my list. But that race just opened up. I ain’t saying that it’s a sure thing, but it’s now a real thing.

Moe Lane

Ken Cuccinelli corybookers in Virginia.

If that verb takes off, I want 10% of the gross.

Anyway, Virginia AG (who happens to be also running for Governor) Ken Cuccinelli was driving along yesterday when…

Cuccinelli was on his way back to Richmond on Friday after a meeting of his Human Trafficking Task Force in Staunton when he and his driver Cory Chenard noticed a semi-truck with a flatbed trailer carrying a heavy load in front of them an awful smelling smoke coming from it’s rear.

[snip]

“I skipped by the cab back to the back of the truck and sure enough it was still on fire,” he said.

Cuccinelli helped the driver out of the cab of the truck and then went in search of a fire extinguisher. After finding one he instructed Chenard to call for help and he ran to the back of the truck to help the driver put out the flames.

Continue reading Ken Cuccinelli corybookers in Virginia.

QotD, It Sounds More Like A Batman Comic Plot* edition.

Glenn Reynolds, after quoting JWF, who is calling out Derek Jeter for being a Goreian eco-hypocrite:

Great plot for a novel: Underground group targets mansions, private jets of global-warming hypocrites for destruction; no one can figure which side of climate debate they’re on.

And while a jury would convict, it probably wouldn’t come up with a large settlement.  Large being defined as ‘a buck.’

Moe Lane

*This is not a slam.

White House: The DC Circuit Court has made its NLRB decision…

…now let it enforce it:

President Obama’s spokesman denounced the invalidation of the so-called ‘recess’ appointments as a “novel and unprecedented ruling,” adding that the decision has “no impact on the ongoing operations of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“The decision is novel and unprecedented,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said during the press briefing. “It contradicts 150 years of practice by Democratic and Republican administrations. so, we respectfully but strongly disagree with the ruling.” Carney said that over 280 intrasession recess appointments have been made since 1867.

And, thanks to the Obama administration, that particular little political pressure valve may be clamped shut forever! All because Barack Obama and his team of N-dimensional geniuses apparently don’t know how to deal with people who will tell them “No.” Continue reading White House: The DC Circuit Court has made its NLRB decision…

I quibble with this post on the gun-controllers’ failure.

It is such a small quibble, to be sure: but this is the Internet.  Small quibbles are our lifeblood.

After all, we are talking about people who spend most of their time floating about in the liberal bubble world of the DC beltway and the rest of their time talking with constituents who believe “The Day After Tomorrow” was a documentary and that Paul Krugman is the cobra emperor of intellectuals (i.e. grown in a lab from the DNA of famous, but long dead liberal thinkers).

While I … grant … that Serpentor has sometimes been styled the ‘Cobra Emperor,’ it’s a little more complicated than that.  As only comic books / animated television can make it.  But again, that’s a small quibble.  Goodness knows that Krugman has the arrogance down pat:

The Specialists Kickstarter announces first stretch goal.

I mentioned this one before: WWII alt-history superhero comic looking to publish.  Not going to be one of those mega-monster 10,000x funded KSers, but it looks like it’ll hit its base goal and I wouldn’t mind the first stretch goal that they announced, either.

And… that’s pretty much it. I like the webcomic and it’d be nice to see it make print.

California’s energy bills to skyrocket?

Shock.  Surprise.

California has been a leader in Renewable Energy production, in part due to federal and state level policies that provide incentives for producers of renewable power. However, a new report found that California’s Energy policies will raise state power rates and associated costs by nearly 33 percent.

The report by the free-market Pacific Research Institute specifically focuses on the additional costs imposed by a state mandate that requires 33 percent of its power come from renewable sources, like wind, solar and geothermal by 2020. PRI estimates that the California renewable portfolio standard will be an additional $5 billion in 2020.

If this keeps up, we may need to put quarantine stations at the California border. I’m not entirely certain that whatever it is that makes the California electorate keep voting for this idiocy isn’t actually virulent.

Via AoSHQ.

Moe Lane