Author: Moe_Lane

By the way, we’re having a trade war with Mexico.

Yes, yes, I know: NAFTA’s supposed to prevent that sort of thing, but we’re having one anyway:

Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington said pressuring politicians by hitting imports from states with key Democratic leaders with tariffs of up to 90 percent “is one the main considerations,” for the action, the Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.

The official list of products has not been released, but a draft obtained by economist Dermot Hayes at the University of Iowa suggest the tariffs will pinpoint almonds from California, sunglasses from Illinois, bowling equipment from Nevada and books from New York — the home states of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

And before you ask: yes, it’s because of the bill that Dina Titus (D-NV) said that she read. Continue reading By the way, we’re having a trade war with Mexico.

I wonder if Glenn has had his coffee yet.

After all, when you’re talking about survival guides it seems odd to omit classics like The Zombie Survival Guide (now in flashcard form!). And I still have to somehow acquire How To Survive a Robot Uprising. Wilson’s Where’s My Jetpack? looks fun, too.

Finishing up, I heartily recommend Pocket Guide To The Apocalypse: The Official Field Manual For The End Of The World: it’s not really a field manual, but it does have the singular virtue of containing a general analysis of the various threads of Western eschatological thinking by somebody who doesn’t hate evangelical Christians.  So I guess that it is a field manual, only not for the stated purpose.

[UPDATE] I have been properly dinged for not including How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas, and Zombies; let me head off future criticisms at the pass by also including How to Rule the World: A Handbook for the Aspiring Dictator and How to Be a Villain: Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans, and More!!!.  These kinds of books have pretty long subtitles, huh?

Storm From The Shadows: The Sort-of, Kind-of, Not-Really Review.

I’ve just finished reading Storm from the Shadows – for those unfamiliar with it, it’s David Weber‘s latest book in his Honorverse series – and while it was good, there’s one potential problem: it definitely references events that are taking place in Weber/Flint’s Torch of Freedom, as well as ones in Mission of Honor.  Neither book is out yet; ToF is not until November.  It’s not even on Baen Books’ schedule, yet.

That being said, you don’t need to read ToF to understand what’s going on SFtS, although if you want to get involved in this Nelson/Horatio Hornblower science fiction series you’re best off starting with On Basilisk Station and chewing your way through.  But that’s the nature of long, well-developed genre fiction series.

BETAMAX WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL.

Charmingly retro.

It was even popular in England: it was only because VHS won out in the US that it died out over there. In other words, a Betamax gift would have rocked, Iowahawk.

Sorry: it turns out that the stupid jokes that we all made about how the DVDs that Obama gave Brown were the wrong region were…

Yeah. Yeah, they were. How do we know? Because the Prime Minister actually sat down to watch ’em, that’s how we know.

I never want to hear another single damned word about how intellectually incurious George W Bush was.

EVER.

Moe Lane

Hi, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND). Enjoying your Countrywide mortgage?

You know, the one that’s just like the ones that your fellow Democrat Chris Dodd (D-CT) got?

Report Details Countrywide’s Efforts to Benefit VIPs

WASHINGTON — – Executives at Countrywide Financial, one of the biggest names of the housing boom, routinely violated internal company policies to provide below-market rates on home loans to the politically connected and powerful, according to a congressional report to be released Thursday.

[snip]

Recipients of special loans included senators and other officials, prominent businessmen, congressional aides, celebrities and journalists, including Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, Jackson’s daughter and others.

Via Jeff Goldstein. Continue reading Hi, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND). Enjoying your Countrywide mortgage?

A recap of the AIG Bonus Blame Party.

So, let us review the bidding on the AIG bonus scandal, and who’s being blamed for it.

The Senate, in the person of Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), is blaming the executive branch, pretty explicitly.

The House, in the person of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), is likewise blaming the executive branch – but she’s also blaming the Senate.

The White House doesn’t want to blame anybody… but AIG is like a suicide bomber (H/T Hot Air), and a “senior government official” is just plain “outraged” at that awful Congress for passing this.  But Obama’s not about pointing fingers about how it could be the Republican’s fault – which is good, because as Ace points out our only contribution to this mess was Senator Olympia Snowe’s (R-ME) language in the debt bill that would have prevented these bonuses in the first place (that was before Dodd/Geithner/The White House/The Easter Bunny took them out, of course).  Nope.  It’s all Obama’s responsibility – but not his fault!
Continue reading A recap of the AIG Bonus Blame Party.

Come, I will hide nothing from you: I don’t *do* March Madness.

I don’t watch basketball.

Deceiver Madness, on the other hand… so far, on the Politicos bracket all four of my guys are still in play. The other categories? Not so much.

Looking at the future, my Final Four are going to be Tom Cruise, PETA… hmm, Perez Hilton, and Barack Obama (although John Edwards is going to give him one heck of a fight).

Crossposted to RedState.