#rsrh QotD, Hot Air edition.

Allahpundit, on the, ah, surprising press conference today – and how it was a bit of a surprise to the White House staff, too:

Say what you will about Axe, Gibbsy, and the rest of the crew, but I’d like to think they have the basic political common sense to avoid photo ops where the president has to skip out after a minute or two to go eat gingerbread cookies.

I should also like to note for the record that while it is certainly possible that Obama is playing 13th-dimensional chess here, it is also certainly possible that he’s merely flailing about both ineffectually, and amusingly.  Given that I’ve never been particularly impressed with the President’s ability to lead people who weren’t inclined to follow him blindly, you can guess which possibility I’m going with.

#rsrh Dems to punish WH by… keeping Gitmo open.

Wait, what?

In a striking move, the Appropriations Committee late Wednesday attached a provision to a $1.1 trillion resolution to keep the government funded next year that would prevent Obama from spending any funds to try terrorism suspects in civilian court instead of military commissions.

The language would essentially prevent the closing of the detainee prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.

The Judean People’s Front released a statement in support:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_12E1EN6fs

Umm… thanks?

Moe Lane

New Wikileaks cable?

I’ll be honest: I hesitated to put up this link to what claims to be a Wikileaked cable regarding issues with the US/UK special relationship during the previous administration. I truly did. I have long made it clear that I take our security classification system likely, and I subscribe wholeheartedly to the notion that some things are and should be on a need-to-know basis. In a very real sense, linking to this alleged cable can be seen as a certain betrayal of trust.

But I wouldn’t link if I didn’t think that my readers should see this; so here you go. I will totally understand if you don’t want to click on through – or whether you have long-term problems with me for putting it up in the first place.

http://www.ding.net/wikileaks/234867.txt

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I had somebody who does have a security clearance look at it; that person couldn’t authenticate the cable, but I was told that the header is in a format that’s consistent with standard American classification language. So there’s that.

Prince of Wales attacked by far-Left mob.

(Via Instapundit) One presumes, at least, based on the graffiti (generally Communist; I’d also say ‘vile and ignorant,’ but that would be redundant), the careful over-dramatic poses (with obligatory bandannas), and of course the crowd of screaming blackshirt anarchists smashing the window of Prince Charles’ limo while screaming “Tory scum*.”  The ostensible reason for the rioting was the recent hiking of tuition rates in England, which have proven to be unpopular.  I say ‘ostensible’ because, as is the custom, the protests got taken over by Hard Left groups who could care less about tuition increases.  What they do care about is inciting a politically-useful violent response from the police, which they apparently think will allow them to start the Revolution on the spot.  Which wouldn’t actually happen, but then Communism is intellectualism for stupid people.

By the way, I have a suggestion for the British: if your students can’t have a demonstration without throwing a paint can through a limousine window and attacking your heir to the throne, then perhaps everybody that you catch at it shouldn’t get to be students anymore.  And don’t let yourself get too worked up about them reacting badly to it, either.  Your own Winston Churchill had quite a few things to say on the subject of appeasement, and why it’s a bad idea.  You know, Churchill.  The fellow whose statue one of your spoiled man-children was caught urinating on.

Moe Lane (crosspost) Continue reading Prince of Wales attacked by far-Left mob.

House Dems bribed to silence on tax bill?

Allahpundit calls House Democrats “a gang of cheap losers” for folding like this, and it’s hard to disagree: apparently, all that rhetoric about tax cuts for the rich can easily be trumped with an additional ethanol subsidy.  To which I say, drink deep: because in a world where Al Cubslayer Gore is talking about ending that kind of pork, the odds that it’s going to get renewed by the House next year is dropping precipitously.

Also, out of curiosity: is there anything that a Democratic politician will stand his or her ground on?  I mean, personally I have to take a somewhat detached view about what slop the President has to feed to his pigs in order to get them to stop squealing; the GOP currently has no effective control over that aspect of domestic policy.  Still… there’s more than the slop for Democrats, right? – But if there is, why can’t I figure out what it could possibly be?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: You cannot make me respect someone who will not respect himself.

#rsrh For the love of God, Barry: have a smoke.

The week you’ve had, I’d have to have a heart of granite to tell you not to light up.  I was a smoker for twenty years, more or less; I’ve been clean for about six years, and I still miss the darn things*.

So bum a cigarette off of John Boenher and ignore your wife’s dirty looks.  The last thing that we need right now is you being twitchy on top of everything else.

Moe Lane

*I suspect that most of the virulent anti-smoking types do, too; fulminating against the Demon Tobacco is thus just their coping mechanism.  At a guess.