Month: February 2015

Reminder: @AoSHQDD will be on the job tonight for the Chicago Mayor’s election.

It’s a pretty big deal, actually…

…because the mayor, of course, is Rahm Emanuel: and there’s some question about whether he’s going to be able to avoid a runoff tonight.  If there is a runoff in that election then expect that it’s going to be a remarkably bitter and messy one.  Rahm Emanuel is not exactly what one might call universally loved.

Not that anybody expects that Rahm’s mood will improve if the runoff happens.

Calls for a General Strike in Wisconsin. Will it work?

Interesting question.

As Wisconsin considers becoming the nation’s 25th Right-To-Work state, unions are up in arms and planning to protest the state capitol on Tuesday.

In some corners, however, some are proposing something more radical—a “general strike.”

My immediate gut answer would be …theoretically, it might.  If the unions could get the Democrats in general on board, they might have a shot. Might. In practical terms, though? Well, I am not from Wisconsin, but I get the general impression that many of the people in Wisconsin are getting tired of the Democrats pulling junk like this every two years. It’s like the recall: theoretically, the Democrats could get one going for next year. …Which would probably ensure that Wisconsin flips to the R column.

I can’t imagine that the Democrats don’t already know that. So I’m going to guess that no, there won’t be a general strike. At least not until the Wisconsin Democratic party recharges its batteries a bit more. Which means that Right-to-Work is going to probably pass in Wisconsin.

Moe Lane

 

You gotta say this for Karl Rove/American Crossroads: they’re Ready For Hillary, too.

Glenn Reynolds called this Master-level trolling from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, and… yeah. Yeah, it is.

Using Elizabeth Warren’s voice to drive home that message is a lovely touch. She’ll either have to complain, thus alienating her biggest fans; or she’ll have to keep her mouth shut, thus alienating the Clinton campaign.  That’s a win either way: it’s always nice to see a professional at work, particularly when the work isn’t actually aimed at you. If American Crossroads just stays out of the primaries this time, that would be spiffy, thanks.  If they do that, we’ll shower attaboys on Karl Rove all day and even let him have the last brownie.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Quote of the Day, Yet Another Miracle On Ice Nostalgia Bomb edition.

Via RCP, eventually:

It’s interesting, Michaels says he never gets tired of people coming up to him to talk about that call or that game. He never tires of hearing people say where they were when they heard the call. I was in our TV room, my father was on the couch, my mother was out playing cards. I remember jumping up and down when Eruzione scored the game-winner… and I suspect that was the first hockey game I had watched, beginning to end, on television (I did go to a Cleveland Barons game once). Of course, it was the first hockey game that many Americans had seen.

I think that I’ve mentioned this before, but: I was with my dad at a Cub Scouts award dinner, and every single person there wanted to be watching the God-damned game.  Why none of the adults yelled F*ck it and made the caterer wheel in a TV, I’ll never know.  The worst part? When the Scouting people announced the final score – WAIT. HOW DID THEY KNOW? …THOSE SOBS- anyway, they viciously and cruelly gave the Soviet score first.  I should have thrown a fork at them.  No, seriously, there would have been no way I’d have gotten in trouble for it at that age.

Notorious Democratic Big Data shop Catalist accused of violating election law.

Regretfully, I need to add an important caveat to this quote:

[It is alleged that – ML] [a]n influential demographic analysis firm founded and run by Democratic operatives with close ties to Hillary Clinton repeatedly violated federal law in 2014 by coordinating its work with dozens of congressional Democrats and the party’s three major national campaign committees.

The charge was described in a 29-page complaint filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a right-leaning nonprofit watchdog. Fifteen pages of the complaint were required to list all of the entities the accountability foundation alleged were involved in multiple violations of the Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971.

…because while I think that of course Catalist vigorously broke the law here,  I happen to be a partisan Republican hack, remember? I’m not exactly what one might call objective, in other words. You could tell me that Catalist was sacrificing baby harp seals to Cthulhu, and my immediate response would be to solemnly call for a special prosecutor in order to get to the bottom of this.

Now, that being said… federal election law is not Byzantine. The Byzantines built bureaucracies that worked for almost a thousand years, thank you very much. No, federal election law is a hot mess that is pretty much designed to look like it’s doing something all reform-like, while still allowing political operatives to run merrily through the ramshackle edifice; while both picking up, and throwing away, money as they go. So, no, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that Catalist might be provably dirty. And neither does it surprise me that Catalist might have gotten sloppy, either.  This Thing Of Ours has a history rich in instructive stories about reasonably smart people who did some very stupid things over campaign contributions. Or with them. Continue reading Notorious Democratic Big Data shop Catalist accused of violating election law.

In the Mail: Mark Millar’s Starlight.

Short version: two-fisted hero type goes to alien planet, has Golden Age pulp science fiction adventures. Does it all. Goes back home, nobody believes him, gets used to that. Forty years pass. Then they need him again…

Ate it in one gulp: Mark Millar wrote a nice thing here that played it exquisitely straight. Glad to have it in my library: and if the cover below appeals to you, you probably will too. Check it out.

Oh, look. Pennsylvania Democrats want Voter ID for THEIR stuff.

Do as they say, not as they do:

voter-id

Gotta wonder why they think it’s OK for them to have verification, but not the rest of us. Then again: I’ve had lunch in that hotel. It’s a very nice, and rather pricey, venue: presumably the Democratic party bigwigs that picked it don’t want just anybody sneaking in and raiding the buffet table. Or… perhaps the Democratic party really does believe its own agitprop that minorities don’t have picture IDs as a matter of course? No, wait, their own token minority members would probably be seen as ‘reliable’ enough to be allowed ID.  I guess we’re just going to have to go with “the Democrats are defending the cake trolley” interpretation.

Via