Rep. Ike Skelton (D, MO) has forgotten all he learned once of national security.

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) Remember: Ike Skelton is supposed to be one of their smart ones; one of the few remaining people that the Democrats can trot out whenever they need to try to persuade the populace that Democrats have a clue about national security. So, when he says something like this:

Added Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (Mo.): “They caught him. They caught him. They caught him. What’s wrong with being lucky?”

…in response to the Republican party’s rather obvious observation that when it comes to counter-terrorism, hope is not a plan – well, that’s kind of disturbing.  You see, Ike Skelton should not be able to rely on the standard Democratic excuse of systematic ignorance to explain why he doesn’t know of this infamous IRA warning to Maggie Thatcher: Continue reading Rep. Ike Skelton (D, MO) has forgotten all he learned once of national security.

LA Times’ CA-SEN/GOV picks: “We hate you all…” #rsrh

“…so go die in a fire.”

Our endorsements for the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor and U.S. Senate remain. We now realize that we inadvertently saved the worst races for last. Perhaps the general election campaign will spur the candidates for the state’s most important offices to dig deeper and to present voters with rational plans to move California forward or to represent it in Congress, but in the primary phase, it’s impossible to forthrightly back any of them.

I may be paraphrasing there.

Via Instapundit, via Mickey.

Good News/Bad News on unemployment.

Good news: thanks in large part to Census hiring, April job creation almost made the minimum replacement rate.

The American economy added 290,000 jobs in April, which was much better than expected despite temporary hiring for the 2010 U.S. Census. Excluding Census workers, 224,000 nonfarm jobs were created, with the unemployment rate edging up to 9.9% from 9.7%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Bad news: unemployment went up to 9.9%.  I’ll leave it to my readers to decide which is more important.

Moe Lane

PS: The general mood?  “That’s nice, but the stock market almost went for a dance off of the Grand Canyon yesterday.”

Crossposted to RedState.

#rsrh This is somewhat specialized political humor…

…but if you do happen to have the right combination of knowledge and interest it’s pretty darn funny.  A taste:

18 CFR §2301: Regulations Concerning the Consumability of Food Items Determined to Be on the Ground, Relative to Time (the “Five Second Rule” and the “Thirty Second Rule”); Definitions; Penalties for Violations Thereof

(1)(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (2) herein, whoever consumes a food item, as defined in 18 CFR §§ 2302-11 inclusive, which has been in physical contact with the ground for greater than or equal to five seconds from the time the food item first came into contact with the ground, until the time the food item it removed from the ground, shall be deemed to have violated the Five Second Rule, and subject to the penalties set forth in subsection (4) herein.

Mind you, if you’re waiting for me to say that there isn’t something sad about the fact that I find it pretty darn funny, well, you may not want to drop anything important in order to keep waiting…

#rsrh What? The UK thing STILL not resolved?

Seriously?

Conservative 297 94
Labour 252 -88
Liberal Democrat 53 -5
Scottish National Party 6 0
Plaid Cymru 3 1
Others 18 -2

629 out of 650, and nobody’s seeing a clear path to a majority.  Also: apparently it takes the British almost a day to count election returns (maybe they have just one guy who does it, and he has to run from borough to borough).  Conclusions:

  • This entire situation reminds me why I distrust scenarios where multiple parties have representation in a legislature.
  • At the rate things are going, somebody is going to have to ask the Queen what she thinks.  That may be interesting.
  • I actually retain fond memories of British breakfasts – their bacon is unusual, but good – so watching the BBC broadcasters stumble around at 6 AM local time over this entire thing merely made me oddly hungry.

Meet Todd Young (R CAND, IN-09).

Todd just won the GOP primary in Indiana’s 9th District, beating out early frontrunner Mike Sodrel. He’s facing Baron Hill, who of course is best known for thinking that his first name is also his title. Cook rated this race as Toss-Up: interestingly, total GOP participation exceeded total Democratic participation in the primary, which was contested on both sides.

Todd’s site is here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.