Song called on account of jaw-dropping Presidential statement.

I am officially gobsmacked. POTUS:

“Whether We Like it or Not, We Remain a Dominant Military Superpower.”

Here’s the video, in case the site above doesn’t load:

I got nothing, sorry.

[UPDATE]: No, wait, I do have something. Dude. READ THIS STUFF ALOUD FIRST BEFORE YOU GO IN FRONT OF A CAMERA. Find somebody on staff who doesn’t love you and read it in front of him or her. Watch to see where the winces are.

Define ‘sensible drinking.’

…OK, they do (1-2 ‘small’ glasses of wine/day), and it’s unfortunately… sensible.  At least, when you’re my age.

Sensible drinking can substantially reduce your risk of a stroke, but only if you don’t enjoy a cigarette at the same time, research suggests.

A study of over 20,000 people in the UK found non-smokers who drank moderate amounts were nearly 40% less likely to have a stroke than non-drinkers.

But once cigarettes were added, this protective effect vanished.

It’s always somethi…

Wait.  I quit smoking years ago.  So it’s all cool.  As soon as I can determine whether insensible drinking counts.  Or at least drinking until insensible.  Which, knowing my tolerance these days, takes us right back to what are called ‘sensible’ levels…

Chris Christie (R, NJ) zeros out faith-based program!

Sixty-five million dollars’ worth. The entire budget, in fact:

Gov. Chris Christie is taking $65 million, the entire allocation, from the state’s global warming fund, and $5.9 million, from the toxic waste site cleanup program, to help close the over $10 billion deficit in his $29.3 billion 2010-11 state budget, the state environmental protection commissioner said Monday.

In discussing the Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed $380.6 million budget before the Assembly Budget Committee in Trenton, Commissioner Bob Martin said he hopes the loss of the $65 million, funding for the state’s role in a regional effort to combat global warming, will only be for one year. He told the committee that DEP staff will continue to attempt to work against global warming and so-called greenhouses gasses despite the lack of money.

(Via Cubachi, via @MelissaTweets) I am confident that Bob Martin will be able to continue working against global warming. In fact, I am confident that he will be just as successful at it this year as he was last year: and you may take that statement any way that you like.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

#rsrh Hey, what’s that festooning the Colbert Show?

Ah. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s guts.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Julian Assange
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

Continue reading #rsrh Hey, what’s that festooning the Colbert Show?

Meet Jon Barela (R CAND, NM-01).

I had the opportunity to meet with New Mexico candidate (and NRCC Young Gun) Jon Barela yesterday for a quick interview and discussion:

The district (currently listed as Likely Democratic by Cook) itself is interesting; it’s a traditionally Republican district and the last poll for it was prior to passage of the health care debacle. Rep. Heinrich not only supported the bill; he supported a public option, and is also on the wrong side of pretty much every conservative issue of the 111th Congress, from the ‘stimulus’ on. Heinrich even managed to co-sponsor card check legislation, which is particularly unfortunate for him right now. The basic theme to this campaign, in other words, is that the incumbent is not only too liberal for the district; he’s too liberal for his own local party, to the point where some Democratic delegates were voting for Barela in their pre-primary election.  This is not a sign of a secure incumbent.

Jon’s site is here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

#rsrh Barney Frank gets yelled at for health care.

By two ophthalmologists, apparently.  That’s pretty much the story: he was on a flight with his partner, the two ophthalmologists decided to voice their disappointment with Frank’s error in government, Frank’s partner said something rude about the ophthalmologists’ gender, and it all went downhill from there.  Personally, I’m with Glenn Reynolds on this: if Barney Frank doesn’t want to hear unflattering things said in public about his legislative technique, Barney Frank is welcome to start driving more. And if he feels that dealing with this is beneath his dignity as House Finance Services chair, well, the way things are going that won’t be an issue anyway, starting next January.

Moe Lane

PS: I’d like to note for the record that the participants of only one side of this argument have actually ever worked for a living, and it ain’t the ones who were in favor of the Democrats’ health care debacle.

Congressional Democrats muck up Congressional insurance coverage.

Not. OUR. Fault.

Via Just One Minute (indeed…) comes your feel-good story of the day: Congressional Democrats have managed to thoroughly muck up Congress’ own health care coverage, particularly for new hires. Both staffers and legislators:

The law apparently bars members of Congress from the federal employees health program, on the assumption that lawmakers should join many of their constituents in getting coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.

But the research service found that this provision was written in an imprecise, confusing way, so it is not clear when it takes effect.

The new exchanges do not have to be in operation until 2014. But because of a possible “drafting error,” the report says, Congress did not specify an effective date for the section excluding lawmakers from the existing program.

Under well-established canons of statutory interpretation, the report said, “a law takes effect on the date of its enactment” unless Congress clearly specifies otherwise. And Congress did not specify any other effective date for this part of the health care law. The law was enacted when President Obama signed it three weeks ago.

Continue reading Congressional Democrats muck up Congressional insurance coverage.

Portman rivals Rubio in 1Q fundraising: 2.35 million.

Not too shabby:

Rob Portman announced today that his U.S. Senate campaign raised $2.35 million during the first three months of 2010 and has $7.6 million cash-on-hand. More than 5,600 individuals contributed to the campaign during the first quarter, bringing the total number of individual supporters to more than 13,000 – over 80 percent of whom are Ohioans.

Couple that with his polling outside the MoE on the latest Rasmussen and Portman’s having himself a decent quarter here. As opposed to his Democratic counterparts, who are currently rather busy cutting each other into ribbons over whether or not there’s a whispering campaign going on:

[OH SOS Jennifer] Brunner told The Vindicator during a Friday telephone interview that her criticism is “obviously getting under his skin. I have evidence, but when people who support me tell me these things they’re afraid to let me give their names. There are numerous instances where either he or his wife will say to people that the governor has endorsed [Lt. Gov.] Lee [Fisher]. People won’t come forward because they’re scared.”

Meanwhile, Fisher is bragging about his role in the 172K job loss in Ohio in 2009.

No, really.

Moe Lane

PS: Support Rob Portman anyway. There’s always the chance that the Democrats will wise up and nominate a functional candidate for Ohio Senate.

Crossposted to RedState.