Although the Nobel thing has pretty much crested by now…

…this Reason article (“Praise Our Nobel Laureate, You Churlish Anti-American:” H/T: Instapundit) is still worth linking to, for two reasons. The first is this paragraph:

[NPR correspondent Don] Gonyea argues that because he is receiving the award for not being George W. Bush, and for changing American foreign policy by continuing super peaceful Predator drone attacks on the Taliban and pouring more troops into Afghanistan, this might “remind swing voters” that “he has done a lot for the United States around the world.” Well. Having Norwegian lefties reminding fence-sitting Americans that Obama makes Europeans swoon will probably be as effective as encouraging readers of The Guardian to write condescending letters to voters in Ohio, informing them that most people who pay a television license and subscribe to The New Statesman think George W. Bush is a mentally retarded Nazi.

The second reason is for revisiting the Guardian’s infamous Operation Clark County – which was easily one of the top five Left own-goals of the 2004 election. For those who weren’t paying attention then: the paper tried to micro-target a swing district in Ohio by having their readers send pro-Kerry letters to random voters in that county.  And how did that go? Continue reading Although the Nobel thing has pretty much crested by now…

CBO: Tort reform would save $164B over ten years.

54 billion in deficit reduction, 110 billion in reduced health care costs. Via the CBO’s blog, via Hot Air.

That’s a decent amount of savings, there: it’s a shame that the Democratic party would rather that trial lawyers got the money. After all, trial lawyers can be counted on to give the Democrats some of it.

Crossposted to RedState.

The Honduras article Sen. Kerry (D, MA) didn’t want you to see.

(Via Dan Collins of POWIP) Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) is back from Honduras – despite the best efforts of the Democrats to stop him from going – and he’s unkind about what has been pretty obviously an attempt by the American government to admit that we made a mistake and picked the wrong side of the Honduras issue:

[American policy re: the Zelaya ouster] was set in a snap decision the day Mr. Zelaya was removed from office, without a full assessment of either the facts or reliable legal analysis of the constitutional provisions at issue. Three months later, it remains in force, despite mounting evidence of its moral and legal incoherence.

[snip]

In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

When I asked Ambassador Llorens why the U.S. government insists on labeling what appears to the entire country to be the constitutional removal of Mr. Zelaya a “coup,” he urged me to read the legal opinion drafted by the State Department’s top lawyer, Harold Koh. As it happens, I have asked to see Mr. Koh’s report before and since my trip, but all requests to publicly disclose it have been denied.

Continue reading The Honduras article Sen. Kerry (D, MA) didn’t want you to see.

Ah, right. It’s Columbus Day.

Time for the usual nonsense:

DENVER—A Denver parade in honor of Christopher Columbus is on—despite a phony e-mail that circulated Thursday saying the downtown celebration was canceled for lack of funds.

The Sons of Italy’s Columbus Day Parade Committee in Denver was shocked to learn of the e-mail sent to the media, which was signed by Sons of Italy President Richard SaBell. The fake e-mail said protesters had “ruined” the event and tarnished the legacy of an Italian hero.

(Via Instapundit) Ah, the activist Left. To evoke Norm from Cheers: can’t live with ’em, pass the beer nuts.

Moe Lane

PS: We will now pause for the usual whines about how we shouldn’t assume a political motivation for this one.  I’m hoping for something particularly defensive and/or brassy this year: the Left’s a little riled up right now.

Crossposted to RedState.

NJ/VA Palin-less?

(Via Hot Air) The Democrats in this Politico piece about former Gov. Palin and the VA/NJ races are spouting nonsense about her long term appeal, of course* – they’re aware as I am that she’s going to be very much in demand in Congressional races where the Democratic incumbent is holding down a seat in a district that McCain or Bush won.  Of which there are quite a few; but Democratic strategists can perhaps not be blamed for not wanting to say something along the lines of ‘Well, THAT WOMAN is going to go through all those Southern/Western Blue-on-Red districts like a buzz-saw, so you might as well get used to it.’  The people who need to hear that most will want to hear it least.

That being said, I don’t expect her to participate in the NJ gubernatorial election, although VA’s may yet still see a presence if the McDonnell campaign goes sour.  Virginia’s at best lightly purple, even now; New Jersey’s pretty definitely blue.  Christie doesn’t have a margin for taking chances right now.

Moe Lane

*As might be perhaps witnessed by interest in her book, which is currently at #3 on Amazon after spending over a week at #1. And that was individual pre-order.

Crossposted to RedState.

Letterman brought mistress along… on family vacation.

I got nothing, sorry.

And the No. 1 reason David Letterman is a cad: The “Late Show” host brought the assistant he was sleeping with on Caribbean vacations with his wife and their young son, sources told The Post.

Letterman’s wife, Regina Lasko, had no clue the comic was having an affair with his pretty, much younger assistant Stephanie Birkitt — a $200,000-a-year employee — when she was tagging along on the cozy, romantic trips, sources said.

Except… wait. The extortion attempt was apparently being scheduled around Cronkite’s memorial service. Now there’s some symbolism for you.

Via JammieWearingFool, via Hot Air Headlines.

Handicapping next year’s Senate races.

(H/T: Instapundit) The Politico’s list of vulnerable Senate seats is interesting, interesting, interesting.  This is not turning out to be a Democratic cycle, as witnessed by the fact that only two of the top eight vulnerable are Republicans.  In their order of sitting incumbents*:

Dodd (CT)
Reid (NV)
Lincoln (AR)
Bennet (CO)
Specter (PA)
Vitter (LA)
Boxer (CA)
Burr (NC)

Of those eight, the only one that I’d quibble over is Vitter: he’s theoretically vulnerable over the escort thing, but the story’s been out for a while and he’s still crushing Melancon.  Not that I expect us to win all of the other six… but we’re going to pick off at least half of them if the country stays on its current path.

No, I’m not going to say which ones. Where’s the fun in that?

Moe Lane

*The open seat ones are also interesting, but hard to assess this far out.

Crossposted to RedState.