Month: May 2013

Tweet of the Day, I Ain’t Expecting Any Social Security Payout, Either edition.

Not one dime, as presently configured.

Although, ironically, it is the goal of the Democratic party to stave off the date of insolvency for just long enough for my generation to be dead of old age before the final crash. Which means that, by calling for drastic reform of the system, I’m actually arguing against my long-term interests, and in favor of those of the generation right after mine. Because – unlike the Democratic leadership – I’m not an evil bastard.

And now, for something completely different. And show-off-my-geekness-y!

Let me take a moment or two off from what is becoming an epic eye-rolling session at the Internet to show off a couple of treasures that have arrived in the mail.  First off, from Studio Foglio:

mechanicsburg

That’s the medal and signed card from their second-to-last Kickstarter.  Notice that I’ve saved some space there: there’s a reason for that.  Anyway, then there’s this fun stuff from Howard Tayler…

schlock

Absolutely had to have the “Not my circus, not my monkeys” challenge coin.  Absolutely.  Also, note that those two Tagon Toughs coins are Series One.  Only the people who… were lucky enough to hit the critical time window, honestly… were able to snap those up.

Hey, Banner Latte is updating again!

Banner Latte is run by Eric Burns-White, an old buddy of mine from the last century.  We ran in the same amateur gaming circles; false modesty be darned, but there are few people who I think of as real peers when it comes to writing*. Eric’s on that list; check it out if you’re a nerd.  Which, honestly, I assume many of you are.

Moe Lane

*And now I’m going to look at that above paragraph six billion times, just to make sure that I wrote it in a sufficiently awesome style to justify what is pretty much an unsustainable brag.  Ah, hubris.

Jim Graves (D CAND, MN-06) cuts and runs.

:snort: No kidding.

As of today, Jim Graves is going to indefinitely suspend his campaign for Congress from the 6th District.

Translation: He is not running. He is dropping out of politics to concentrate on his family and his business.

This is, of course, Michele Bachmann’s district; and absent Ms. Bachmann from the campaign environment the chances of Jim Graves of getting significant outside support for his doomed candidacy would have been somewhere between zip and nil.  Heck, Graves even admits to it in the article. Brutal truth of it is, a R+8 district is not within reach of the average Democrat this cycle.

:pause:

Contemplate that, folks.

Moe Lane

QotD, What Do They Have To Engage Them? edition

Jim Geraghty:

There’s some anecdotal evidence that a significant chunk of the Left’s rank-and-file started tuning out shortly after Obama’s second term began, and they’re not re-engaging.

[snip of a clip of Lefty blogger digby doing the digital equivalent of grimly looking at the steadily-decreasing level on the vodka bottle]

A lot of possible reasons for this — scandal disillusionment, the crash after the high of Hope-ium, a public starting to feel like they’ve heard of all of Obama’s rhetorical tropes before, overall exhaustion and boredom with politics as a whole — but this is not a development that the Washington conventional wisdom has even noticed, much less even begin to analyze or explain.

Continue reading QotD, What Do They Have To Engage Them? edition

Mitt Romney: don’t waste your time. Just give *me* $50 million to work with.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you. I only read this:

Romney Planning to Rejoin National Dialogue

Months After Election Loss, He Will Host Event in Utah for 200 Friends and Campaign Supporters

…the rest is behind a paywall.  Still: you want to rejoin the National Dialogue, Mr. Romney?  This is how you do it: you give me fifty million dollars and then you tell me what you want said.  Assuming that what you want said is nothing nasty – a safe bet; you’re ridiculously squeaky-clean – I’ll then say it for you.  If you like how it came out, you can keep giving me money until it’s gone, or you’re happy. Continue reading Mitt Romney: don’t waste your time. Just give *me* $50 million to work with.

I don’t think ending Section 5 of the VRA will cost the GOP the Senate.

Um, I understand the basic thrust of this argument:

While culture watchers are eagerly anticipating the Court’s decisions relating to the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 prohibition on gay marriage, political analysts are far more interested to see how the Court rules on the historic challenge to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. If the Court moves to strike portions of the law relating to the reapportionment preclearance provisions in Section 5 of the VRA, the wailing and rending of garments among liberal and progressive media commentators will dwarf the indignation they expressed over voter identification laws in 2012. Similarly, the focus on that decision and its impact on minority voters could drive up Hispanic and African-American turnout in the 2014 midterm elections. Conservatives may cheer the end of the VRA’s anti-federalist, arbitrarily enforced, preclearance mandates, but they may also be celebrating the eradication of the Republican Party’s chances of retaking the U.S. Senate.

Continue reading I don’t think ending Section 5 of the VRA will cost the GOP the Senate.