#rsrh QotD, It’s Probably a Coincidence edition.

Jon Ziegler, in passing while talking about why Kathleen Parker got canned from her CNN gig (short version: she was intellectually flabby, yet uninteresting) (H/T: Hot Air Headlines):

There is also an interesting secondary element to Parker’s demise which might make media pundits a little more hesitant to attack Sarah Palin. Since the 2008 election, many of [Palin’s] biggest media critics have found themselves out of a job. Keith Olbermann, Rick Sanchez, David Shuster, Alan Colmes, Campbell Brown, John Roberts, Larry King, Harry Smith and Parker are all prominently mentioned in my documentary and all of them have been let go from TV jobs since Obama got elected.

I am pretty sure that it’s a coincidence, or perhaps a situation that’s just developed in parallel: after all, these are all television news/opinion media personalities, and it’s no secret that television news sucks these days.  Which doesn’t mean that the talking head designated as ‘Chris Matthews’ should not, as Jon suggests right after the above quote, be unworried about retaining its position…

Moe Lane

#rsrh Radley Balko gets what he wanted.

Good and hard.  While he’s complaining about the quote-unquote “War on Whistle-blowers,” I feel that Balko should consider this observation from just before the 2008 elections:

This isn’t to say that Barack Obama would be any better. Government would undoubtedly grow under his watch. And from my libertarian perspective, he has been increasingly disappointing even on the issues where he’s supposed to be good. We may not go to war with Iran in an Obama administration, but we’d likely become entrenched in a prolonged nation-building adventure in the Sudan. Obama’s vote on the FISA bill and telecom immunity also suggests that, for all his criticisms of President Bush’s use of executive power and assaults on civil liberties, Obama wouldn’t be much better. On the drug war, Obama has promised to end the federal raids on medical marijuana clinics in states that have legalized the drug for treatment, but he wants to resurrect failed federal criminal justice block grant programs that have had some disastrous effects on civil liberties.

While I’m not thrilled at the prospect of an Obama administration (especially with a friendly Congress), the Republicans still need to get their clocks cleaned in two weeks…

…which was made by, hey! Radley Balko.  Personally, I’m more sympathetic to Balko than I am to say, Glenn Greenwald* – the latter’s a nasty ideologue while the former just didn’t appreciate the difference between ‘bad’ and ‘worse’ – but as somebody who actually has to live in this country I am distinctly not enamored of the idea that the only way to make things better is to deliberately go about making things worse first.  A lot of otherwise sentient folks made that argument in 2006 and 2008, and I would take it as a personal favor if all of those people could show a little chagrin at how their ever-so-clever pseudo-revolutionary strategy blew up in everybody’s faces.

Thanks in advance!

Moe Lane

(H/T: Instapundit)

*Whose extensive whine on the subject of said whistle-blower thing was extensively quoted by Balko.  You will of course be utterly unsurprised to find out that Greenwald never happened to mention that said ‘whistleblowing’ apparently burned one of our foreign assets.  Mind you, Greenwald’s notoriously indifferent to foreigners being harmed by his ideological stances, particularly if they’re not Europeans.

[UPDATE]: And Greenwald’s an actual hypocrite, too.  Now that’s just funny.

Villa Rica, GA mayor narrowly avoids electoral DOOM.

Story goes like this:

  • Girl Scout troop sets up a cookie stand in Villa Rica, GA.
  • Cop hassles Girl Scouts for not having permit.
  • Cop brings Girl Scouts to police station.
  • What happened at this point was not explicitly stated in the article, but probably went along these lines: mayor is informed that one of his cops has volunteered the town of Villa Rica to have a blood feud with the Girl Scouts; mayor blanches and has a minor heart attack; mayor screams at cop in question for half an hour and threatens to consume cop’s liver if cop ever does that again.
  • Mayor gets permit for Girl Scouts; takes entire troop to Chuck E. Cheese.
  • Girl Scouts call off blood feud.

OK, that last part is an extrapolation, but a logical one.  Because you.  Do Not. F*ck With. The Girl Scouts.  Or the Boy Scouts, for that matter.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Scouts are immune to whatever pressure can normally be brought to bear on an organization, and they automatically win any dispute in which they find themselves.

Period.  End sentence.

Moe Lane

Via Stephen Gordon*.

*I’m doing more Facebook references because I’m playing the closed beta for Dragon Age Legends.

Wisconsin Democrats now owe state $165,000,000.

The American Thinker points out that, thanks to the refusal of the Wisconsin Democratic party to admit that last November’s elections mattered, a deadline for reducing the debt servicing load of the state of Wisconsin by $165,000,000 expires today.  The money was to help pay a court case settlement involving a $200,000,000 raid on the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund in 2007 by the previous Doyle (D) administration; the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that using the fund to balance the budget was unconstitutional, which means that the state has to pay it back. It also means that without this provision in place, the state is not going to have the opportunity to get even a little out from under its 43 billion dollar debt.

$165,000,000 divided 14 ways works out to just over $14.78 million per AWOL state Senator: personally, I say that they should have their paychecks garnished for it.  Forever.  And then send the remainder of the bill to the Wisconsin Democratic party, since they’re so happy to spend other people’s money on their own petulant political gestures…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

(Via Aaron Smith)

Today is Bacon Day.

(Via Instapundit) According to the Iowa state legislature, that is.  Which is no doubt a distraction from the business of the state legislature; but dammit, it’s bacon.  Seriously, can anybody argue with any of this?

WHEREAS, the people of Maine have lobster, the people of Idaho grow great potatoes, and the folks of Texas make great chili, we Iowans have bacon —— nature’s perfect food; and

WHEREAS, whether plain or apple-wood smoked, whether store-bought or artisan-made, bacon is a meat for any meal; and

WHEREAS, as America’s top pork producer, Iowa stands tall as the nation’s source of high-quality bacon…

Well. OK. People are going to argue about the chili. I’m very ecumenical about chili, myself – but that just means that nobody trusts me in either this or the BBQ wars…

Moe Lane

What the heck is a “AA Nazi?”

Yes, yes, I know what you’re going to say.  You’re going to say, “Moe.  That’s not Charlie Sheen talking.  That’s the cocaine that has seized Charlie’s brain in a violent coup talking.”  And I understand that argument, really I do.  Still:

“These guys are just a couple AA Nazis and really just blunt hypocrites,” said Sheen, referring to producers Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn.

The cocaine is usually more coherent than that.  In fact, I think that we have actually reached the long-promised, but never-before-seen point where cocaine is now wandering around babbling because it’s all f*cked up on Charlie Sheen.

Via @ewerickson.

Moe Lane

PS: Seriously, what does that even mean?  They’re batteries?

Escape to Rockford! Spend money there!

This is yet another reason why the United States of America is the greatest nation on the planet: our collective eye on the main chance.  Is there a group of Democratic state senators out there grimly determined to make themselves – and the Democratic party of Wisconsin – look like hilariously incompetent buffoons?  Well, one person’s idiocy is another person’s economic opportunity… and if you’re going to publicly run off to Rockford, Illinois to hide, then by GOD the city of Rockford, Illinois is going to try to make some money off of your idiocy.

For those without video access: the city of Rockford, Illinois was recently the first hiding place for Democratic Wisconsin state senators looking to avoid doing their jobs.  The city has turned this inane notion into a 2 1/2 minute video hawking the tourist attractions of Rockford.  How cool was it?  Put it this way:  they even got Cheap Trick.

Genius.

Via Sean Hackbarth.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Go back home, ye Democratic state Senators.  You have now officially lost the public narrative.