Author: Moe_Lane

The White House and V.

This isn’t a post on whether or not the parallels between the Visitors of the show and the current administration are deliberate or accidental; it’s not even a post on whether the parallels are fair, for given values of ‘fair*.’ It’s a post on whether we’re seriously expected to believe that the White House isn’t monitoring the program.

Please. 14 million people watched it last Tuesday. That’s a number that’s in the same general vicinity of Rush Limbaugh’s weekly numbers (at a guess), and there’s been a buzz for months that this miniseries wasn’t going to be about the hopeandchange.  Expecting us to believe that any administration as obsessed with how it’s perceived as this one is hasn’t kept an eye on V is as about as realistic as expecting us to believe that either the Tea Party movement, or last week’s elections in New Jersey & Virginia, passed without the administration monitoring developments.

Which is to say, it’s not realistic to expect that.

Moe Lane

*In the broadest sense, it’s fairly obvious that the President is not a Reptoid wearing a flesh mask and sporting a desire for anthropophagy**.

**Firefox’s spelling dictionary leaves something to be desired.

Crossposted to RedState.

Gov. Jodi Rell (R, CT) not running for re-election.

This is interesting.

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell says she will not seek re-election next year.

Rell made the announcement in a news conference with reporters Monday at the statehouse in Hartford.

The article indicates that her personal polling has slipped – all the way down to 59%; she was also looking at a Q-poll which had her six points ahead* her most likely Democratic rival. It’s possible that this was enough to trigger her desire to get out of political life, especially in a year that’s starting to look bad for non-conservative incumbents. Then again, it’s possible that this was enough to trigger her desire to switch political gears and enter a race where she’d end up being neither.

Note: that last is a guess.  And a very speculative one, at that.  And it may be the right guess, but the wrong election cycle…

Moe Lane

*Which tells you… pretty much nothing. Quinnipiac hasn’t been at its best this cycle.

Crossposted to RedState.

I got nothing, sorry.

Oddly, I’m not even revolted by this.

After the baby is born and the cooing in the delivery room begins, parents may do a variety of things with the placenta — maybe take a picture, poke it a bit, or just divert their eyes and let the nurse take it away.

Whatever parents do, it probably wouldn’t match London-based designer Alex Green’s idea of turning the baby’s placenta into a teddy bear.

It’s no more bizarre than making things out of human hair, after all*. I’m just bemused that this guy and I are theoretically in the same cultural tradition.

Via @allahpundit.

Moe Lane

*Which is admittedly pretty freaking bizarre.

So, *which* Lynn Woolsey wants to use the IRS to go after the Catholic Church?

Via Jim Geraghty, and note that it’s the title to her article:

Woolsey: IRS should look at bishops

But I’m curious: which Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.) wants to have the IRS investigate the Roman Catholic Church in response to the latter’s support of the Stupak Amendment?

  • Is it the Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.) who is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus?  If so, is it now the CPC’s official position that the IRS should investigate the Roman Catholic Church?
  • Is it the Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.) of California’s Sixth Congressional District?  If so, will she be campaigning next year on the need for investigating the Roman Catholic Church?
  • Or is it just private citizen Lynn Woolsey (Democrat.  Dem-o-crat.)?  If so, then why did the Politico think that her opinion on investigating the Roman Catholic Church was relevant?

Moe Lane

PS: Is Rep. Woolsey’s position that the IRS should investigate the Roman Catholic Church shared by Vice President Joseph Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi?

Crossposted to RedState.

Hope and Change Watch: AG Holder upholding PATRIOT Act.

Actually, in this context ‘same as the old boss’ would be a comfort. To me, at least, if not the folks who made such a hullabaloo over the PATRIOT Act; I’m not worried about the government abusing its authority so much as I worry about it making an utter hash of its attempt to try to use it. But of course said ‘abuse’ was not the least common election-year theme – usually in the context of how things would change, once the Republicans weren’t running things.  And usually argued by people who really should have known better.

Which is why I’m more amused than anything else about this:

Attorney General Eric Holder endorsed the Senate’s version of legislation that would extend three provisions of the Patriot Act that are slated to expire at the end of the year.

Holder wrote in a letter today to Senate Judiciary Committee members that he offers “strong support” for the USA Patriot Act Sunset Extension Act, which would reauthorize the “lone wolf,” records and “roving wiretap” powers. By contrast, a House version of the bill would not continue the “lone wolf” provision, which lets the government track targets who don’t have any discernible affiliation with terrorist or other foreign groups.

…although I admit that I’m kind of curious of which member of the current ruling party thought that it was a good idea to hamper lone wolf surveillance.  The timing for that seems… suboptimal.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Beltway sniper execution at 9 PM tonight.

As @jaketapper reminds us; the article that spurred that is here.

Personally, I hope that he repents of his sins and seeks forgiveness before he’s executed.  Eternity is, after all, eternal.  But I’m not going to lose any sleep over the thought that he may instead choose evil until it’s too late to change.

Crossposted to RedState.