Author: Moe_Lane

What we’re buying (02/05/09).

Well, I’m not buying anything right now – I have Mad Men (preferably, with a genteelly mixed drink in hand) and The Dark Knight to see for the third time, but my web guy who put this site together* is going to be picking up Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (for the Nintendo DS) and Disgaea 2 (for the Playstation 2) Real Soon Now.  Come, I will hide nothing from you: when I’m not mucking about here I’m often playing either the free online Flash RPGs DragonFable or MechQuest – and I’ve even shelled out money to get the former upgraded.  Half of the Contributors list of RedState is addicted to Mario Kart.

I’m just saying that there’s geeks everywhere, that’s all.

Moe Lane

*A link to his is at the bottom of the page, if you like the look of this place.  Or go here.

Rep Carter forcing a Rangel Scandal?

Via Instapundit, Warlord Rep. John Carter of Mars Texas (R, TX-31) is merrily causing trouble with an untroubled brow and a light heart:

Carter tries to push Rangel out

Republican Rep. John R. Carter of Texas offered legislation Wednesday that would require Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel to relinquish his gavel until the ethics committee completes an investigation into Rangel’s finances.

Under the rules of the House, members must consider Carter’s resolution by next Tuesday, forcing Democrats to confront Rangel’s ethics in the same week they will try to move the massive economic stimulus and a handful of late appropriations bills.

…which is, of course, the last thing that the Democrats want to do, given that it’s going to be kind of hard to explain why Rangel has quite so many rent-controlled apartments, was so behind on his taxes, and generally appears to be giving an excellent impression of a corrupt suckweasel. So now they’re actually going to have to do something about it, even if “something” is a whitewash. Which is the most likely result: if Congressional Democrats actually cared about corruption, they wouldn’t have quite so much of it in their caucus right now.

Still, Sunlight really is the best disinfectant. Well played, Warlord Carter. Well played.

Crossposted at RedState.

Rooting for Injuries Watch: The AP vs. that annoying trace artist guy.

Obama PosterYou know: Shepard Fairey, who took time out from cosplaying a graphic artist for Minitruth and plagiarizing everything that moved to trace out the iconic image of our new President.

Oh, well, it’s America, so it’s not like we really know what to do with irony, anyway. Might as well just shoot in the head and leave it dead in a ditch somewhere; seems more honest, really. Anyway, the AP finally noticed that they got ripped off. Amusingly, they did not see this as merely the logical extension of their already-quite-obvious policy for 2008 (i.e., getting Barack Obama elected any which way that they could that didn’t involve actual weapons), and thus a humorous quirk of the election. We just shot irony, remember? There was a loud explosion and everything.

No, they lawyered up instead.

Continue reading Rooting for Injuries Watch: The AP vs. that annoying trace artist guy.

In the Mail: Mad Men

A gracious and kind soul has purchased Mad Men – Season One for me off of my wish list; and I encourage said kind soul to leave a comment, so that I may find out if there’s any particular reason why I may not offer my thanks by name.

Hey, some people like to be anonymous benefactors. Then again, I’m not exactly the March of Dimes or the Salvation Army, either…

No, really, Glenn: Dumber than soap.

[UPDATE]: I offer the traditional welcome to our Instapundit visitors – geekery on the main page, feel free to peruse – and cheerfully note to Dan Riehl that the woman did say it twice.  I’m only human.

My RS colleague Jeff Emanuel reported on this little oopsie by Speaker Pelosi:

The title of the YouTube was “Dumber than Soap,” which Glenn Reynolds was gentlemanly enough to discount. Alas, Jeff did some more digging, and it turns out that this wasn’t the first time:

Continue reading No, really, Glenn: Dumber than soap.

Is the fix in with Rangel?

Bill Alliston asks the question: Ethics Panel to Clear Rangel?

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel predicted, on C-SPAN’s Newsmakers program that aired Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009, that his multitude of ethics woes would soon disappear. “I think that next Tuesday you will see a break in this and as soon as the Ethics Committee organizes they ought to be able to dismiss this,” National Journal’s CongressDaily quoted the Rangel as saying.

If so, it’s hard to imagine that the Select Committee on Ethics will have devoted anything more than a cursory glance at the various issues raised. Consider just one aspect, for which documents are in the public record: Rangel’s financial disclosure forms. We took a look at his filings going all the way back to 1978, the first year members were required to disclose information on their personal finances, and found 28 instances in which he failed to report acquiring, owning or disposing of assets. Assets worth between $239,026 and $831,000 appear or disappear with no disclosure of when they were acquired, how long they were held, or when they were sold, as the operative House rules at the time required.

Read the whole thing, of course. More backup here – and there’s been more since then, of course; of which this is merely one example. And yet, he’s plainly quietly confident… and Speaker Pelosi is just plain quiet. So why is that, anyway?

Mind you, I already know, and I’ll be saying “I told you so” when House Democrats “clear” Rangel.