Month: June 2013

Politico is shocked, shocked! to see that Mitch McConnell can run a campaign.

When you shear away all the fluff, ham-handed politicking, and let’s-poke-the-Republicans-with-a-stick troublemaking, what you’re left with in this Politico article is pretty much this: Mitch McConnell wants to win his Senate election next year – and he’s apparently got a good idea on how to do that, damn his eyes*.  Seriously, this is their big revelation?

[Reid’s people say that McConnell’s strategy will be to] organize early, raise big money early to scare off opponents, scorch potential rivals to shape the field, push back against polling showing vulnerabilities to depress potential rivals and third-party groups, bolster the state party that each effectively runs and invest in new technology to run an even better campaign than their previous one.

…yes, as opposed to Mitch McConnell stripping himself naked, painting his body with purple and green woad, and doing the Fish Dance at the next debate. Continue reading Politico is shocked, shocked! to see that Mitch McConnell can run a campaign.

Time for some band suggestions.

So, seeing as I’m apparently getting sucked into buying The Fratellis en masse; now is as good a time as any to offer suggestions for good, current bands.  I’m looking for stuff that’s… merry, I guess.  Merry, but with some musical chops behind it. No whiners, no sob stories, no angry blind petulance at the world.

Or something.

NJ state senator (Brian Stack, Democrat) to endorse Chris Christie tomorrow.

Innnnteresting.

State. Sen. Brian Stack and his Assembly runningmates are set to endorse Gov. Chris Christie tomorrow according to a source familiar with the decision.

Stack, a Democrat who is also mayor of Union City, has long been a reliable vote for the governor over the past four years, but many politicos questioned whether he would throw an active endorsement to Christie.

Stack is running alongside Assembly candidates Raj Mukherji and Carmelo Garcia, who will also give their endorsement to Christie, according to the source.

Continue reading NJ state senator (Brian Stack, Democrat) to endorse Chris Christie tomorrow.

Tweet of the Day, Sing It, Brother Dennis edition.

Via Twitchy, Dennis Miller:

Although… now would be a good time for Barack Obama to decide that, what the heck, he might as well authorize Keystone. Most of the people who would be mad at him for that are currently mad anyway.

This is me, trying to wave people off of the Snowden NSA leak story.

Having read it, I have to say: the guy comes off as having a past that looks like it’s going to be rickety under scrutiny; a somewhat self-aggrandizing present; and a future that seems to be largely dependent on the goodwill of the People’s Republic of China.

I mean, Jeez, you don’t go to Hong Kong these days if you’re worried that the local security apparatus might be inclined to snatch-and-grab you for the Americans…

Has the Obama administration EARNED our trust on phone metadata harvesting?

Spoilers: no.

Let us imagine a world where the following occurred*:

  • 2008 – 2013: Barack Obama accepts public financing for the election, promptly closes Gitmo, and rigorously avoids raising taxes of any kind on the middle class.  Just to not-really-randomly pick three of his campaign promises.
  • 2009: Barack Obama secures the formal appointment of Inspector Generals at Defense, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor, State, and the Agency for International Development.
  • 2009 – 2013: President Barack Obama has regular, open press conferences, in the manner of his predecessors.
  • 2009 – 2010: A form of Obamacare passes that is acceptable to at least one Republican Senator.
  • 2009: A proposed loan to troubled Green energy company Solyndra is circular-filed when an advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu sits him down and explains to him that there was probably a good reason why the previous administration refused to sign off on the loan, and that the populace doesn’t really like having its money thrown away.
  • 2010: a particularly difficult worker at the IRS office in Cincinnati sends a series of terse emails to his supervisor, his supervisor’s supervisor, and the relevant officials in DC, indicating that written clarification of a new policy where conservative groups are to be under increased scrutiny will be needed before said worker would feel comfortable following that policy.  The written clarification is not given; the policy is not followed.
  • 2010: plans to tell a federal judge that Fox News reporter James Rosen was a co-conspirator in a criminal case, and thus a legitimate target for a search warrant, are derailed when a Justice Department staffer reads the draft, blanches, calls her supervisor, and asks him to ‘read that draft again, only this time in a Republican voice.’
  • 2010: the murder of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry leads to an internal Justice Department investigation of the disastrous Operation Fast & Furious.  Attorney General Eric Holder responds by producing an unusually frank and open report on the fiasco, firing everyone responsible with prejudice, and takes ultimate responsibility for his department’s mistakes.  Holder then arranges with Congress to expedite a replacement Attorney General so that he can resign respectably.
  • 2012: the IRS engages in a full and public investigation over the allegation that IRS officials leaked the membership list of the National Organization for Marriage to Human Rights Campaign.  The investigation at a bare minimum wrecks several careers, and provides a salutary object lesson for the surviving bureaucrats.
  • 2012: the Department of Justice contemplates wholesale subpoenas of the Associated Press.  This goes nowhere, because the combination of the terms ‘wholesale,’ ‘subpoenas,’ and ‘Associated Press’ in one sentence produces a feeling of anticipatory dread that threatens to take tangible form and savagely beat everyone in the room.
  • 2012: the ambassador to Libya and three other Americans are killed as part of an organized, planned Islamist attack.  False initial reports that the attack was due to a supposed YouTube are later aggressively pushed back on by State Department officials; the President goes on the air and explains that the government is sometimes pulled in two directions by the populace’s expectation that it be simultaneously be both transparent and responsive.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes full responsibility for the deaths, and announces her retirement in the same press conference, after likewise working with Congress to expedite her replacement.
  • 2013: the personal assistant to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius coughs discreetly and points out to her that the legislative branch gets exceedingly shirty when the executive branch tries to fund its shenanigans outside of the standard appropriations process. A series of calls to various health care companies begging for/extorting (depending on who you ask) Obamacare implementation funds are thus not made.
  • 2013: Senator Rand Paul asks President Barack Obama, “Do you think that you have the right to order a drone strike on an American citizen on American soil?” Barack Obama says “No, unless we end up in some kind of nightmare Tom Clancy scenario and if that happens you’re probably going to be in the room with the rest of us anyway.”  Senator Paul says “Thank you” and the confirmation vote of John Brennan proceeds on schedule.

Continue reading Has the Obama administration EARNED our trust on phone metadata harvesting?