Author: Moe_Lane

New York Senate Drama! Showdown! Conflict! Pay Raises!

And nary a word on the subject of same-sex marriage bills.

And here I thought that opportunities to report on the NY Senate’s shenanigans had passed, once Espada flip-flopped back to being a Democrat.  I was wrong:

Elite get fat pay hikes amid Senate stalemate
Democrats reward key staff with up to $32,000 while hitting GOP

ALBANY — Eleven of the state Senate’s highest-paid staffers received raises of up to $32,000 when it appeared likely Democrats would lose control of the chamber during the five-week leadership fight.

The combined increases will cost taxpayers $200,000 annually.

[snip]

Because many of the raises were backdated, staffers are paid the additional cash in a lump sum, said Jennifer Freeman, spokeswoman to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. As a result, staffers expected fat paychecks of thousands of dollars in backdated raises at the exact time that Sampson was accusing Senate Republicans of stalling legislation in an attempt to seize the spoils of majority leadership.

I’d like to note two things about this: Continue reading New York Senate Drama! Showdown! Conflict! Pay Raises!

I should have known better.

When something appears that touches upon an expert’s primary field of study – for example, these shoes:

pr_vibram_fivefingers_kso_f

…and it doesn’t immediately appear on that expert’s blog, it might be because he or she hadn’t seen it yet. But then, it might also be because said expert hit that stuff two years ago, as he very civilly pointed out in comments.

Also: I am ‘super-fantastic.’  Which I personally feel is an excellent affirmation with which to start my work week.

Moe Lane

With a rousing cry of ‘Terra vult,’ no doubt*.

Mark Steyn, with a little of the class warfare, particularly as it applies to global warming aristos. Or should that be theocrats?  I’m not really an expert in research theology.

One assumes Gar Smith is sincere in his fetishization of bucolic African poverty, with its vibrantly rampant disease and charmingly unspoilt life expectancy in the mid-forties. But when a hereditary prince starts attacking capitalism and pining for the days when a benign sovereign knew what was best for the masses, he gives the real game away. Capitalism is liberating: You’re born a peasant but you don’t have to die one.

You can work hard and get a nice place in the suburbs. If you were a 19th-century Russian peasant and you got to Ellis Island, you’d be living in a tenement on the Lower East Side, but your kids would get an education and move uptown, and your grandkids would be doctors and accountants in Westchester County. And your great-grandchild would be a Harvard-educated environmental activist demanding an end to all this electricity and indoor toilets.

Environmentalism opposes that kind of mobility. It seeks to return us to the age of kings, when the masses are restrained by a privileged elite.

…you know, I think that Al Gore would probably seriously groove to being able to hierophant out with a staff, miter, and long, flowing robes. No, not one made out of hemp: didn’t you hear? Secondhand smoke kills.

Moe Lane Continue reading With a rousing cry of ‘Terra vult,’ no doubt*.

CNN gets flipped the blue crane.

(Via Instapundit) That being the national bird of South Africa, which is where I believe Ms. Nkepile Mabuse hails from. I mention this because she very enjoyably made American CNN talking head Don Lemon look like an idiot:

The deliberate mention of President Bush in a favorable context by Ms. Mabuse was probably just a with-malice-aforethought garnish to the main dish of don’t-condescend-about-us-Yank that she served to Lemon, but who cares? – Although I do wish that the more egregious Obama-boosters both in and out of the media would take care to control their enthusiasms in public. As you’ve just seen, it can make the rest of us look somewhat provincial to international eyes.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE] Nah, that’s just the Orbital Mind Control Lasers, Tommy. Don’t worry about it.

New York stimulus money not stimulating… anything, really.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) Treating the symptoms, and not the disease.

Stimulus money plugs budget gaps while little goes to road construction in New York state

New York state has used most of its economic stimulus funding so far to plug holes in its budget and has spent very little on new highway construction, according to a federal watchdog.

New York has used $6.2 billion to close gaps in the state budget. The federal government intended for states to use the money to stabilize their budgets and it was especially important to New York since the state took a historic revenue hit from the collapse of Wall Street.

But the extra state money will soon run out, leaving behind the same state government machine that spends billions more than it takes in. Gov. David Paterson’s staff said it was working on an exit strategy to be revealed at the end of the year, when the next budget proposal is introduced to the Legislature. The state counties association, school districts and members of Congress have warned the state it needs to plan for the federal stimulus money to dry up.

I had a tedious metaphor all set and ready to go, but it’s not really necessary: the answer to New York’s problem is actually not complicated.

  • Stop spending money that you don’t have.
  • If you want something that you can’t have because you don’t have the money, get more money.
  • You cannot turn a luxury into a necessity by wanting it sufficiently enough.

Yes, I’m amazed that I have to write out all of this.  I’m also mordantly certain that it won’t make much difference – or any difference at all – that I did.

Moe Lane

This has to be a Photoshop.

(Via @stoo11) There’s no way anybody could have pulled this off:

ITALY-FINANCE-ECONOMY-G8

The man’s got Secret Service agents and stuff to keep this sort of thing from happening, right?

Libyan Leader Moamer Kadhafi gestures after a meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) and participating African countries during the G8 summit in L’Aquila, in central Italy, on July 10, 2009. G8 leaders, including an Africa-bound Barack Obama, vowed today to stand by the world’s poor despite the downturn, unveiling a 15 billion dollar boost for food production. AFP PHOTO / TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA (Photo credit should read TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

(pause)

Wow.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Rep John Fleming (R, LA-04): So, you want a Government-run health care plan, Democrats?

Fine. Sign yourselves up for it.

Freshman GOP Rep John Fleming of Louisiana recently called for the Democrat-ruled Congress to live by the rules that they want to saddle on the rest of us:

Over the past few weeks, members of Congress and the American people have come to know the details of the Administration’s proposed health care plan. Call it whatever you like, this proposal is nothing more than government-run health care. As a physician, I am amazed at the number of bureaucrats in this House who are quick to claim a government-run health care plan is the reform this country needs. In response to this, I have offered a resolution that will offer members of Congress an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, and urge their colleagues who vote for legislation creating a government-run health care plan to lead by example and enroll themselves in the same public plan.

Under the current draft of the Democrat healthcare legislation, members of Congress are curiously exempt from the government-run health care option, keeping their existing health plans and services on Capitol Hill. If Members of Congress believe so strongly that government-run health care is the best solution for hard working American families, I think it only fitting that Americans see them lead the way. Public servants should always be accountable and responsible for what they are advocating, and I challenge the American people to demand this from their representatives.

See also this video: Continue reading Rep John Fleming (R, LA-04): So, you want a Government-run health care plan, Democrats?