Yup, somebody showed up at the Cancun globowarmo conference with a clipboard and the facts about dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO). With the standard result.
It is almost criminal, the way that more Greens aren’t aware of the danger that DHMO represents to them.
Via Hot Air Headlines.
It goes like this.
Dammit, I paid good money for this game.
There was going to be a completely different post here, but it got preempted by the news that House Democrats have decided to defy the American people and raise your taxes. I’d put this up directly at RedState, except that over there I can’t use the word that best describes the Democratic leadership:
Dumbasses.
Anyway, it’s an iconic end to the 111th Congress: creating a mess for the grown-ups to clean up. Hope you didn’t need that $3K/year!
There’s a story, here. A really, really, really effed up story. If only somebody had told Justin Bieber that this would be a consequence of signing the contract offered by the traveling man at the crossroads at midnight…
Moe Lane
The method is rather… elegant, in a certain sort of way: obnoxious, but elegant. What the Democrats are plotting to do is to finish passing legislation (that would appear in the continuing spending resolution that’s substituting for an actual budget) that would allow the executive branch of the government (in the guise of the Secretary of the Interior) to unilaterally take into trust land offered to them by Native American ‘tribes.’ ‘Tribes’ is in scare quotes because the new legislation makes the determination of tribal status for this purpose the sole province of… the executive branch of the government. Why this matters is because once the government has the land it can give the ‘tribe’ the use of that land back; which means that the ‘tribe’ is free to build a casino there with no interference from state governments.
This is, by the way, not an exaggeration: readers may recall that Senator Barbara Boxer’s family profited mightily earlier this decade from a similar scam involving the Miwok Indians, the Department of the Interior, and a proposed San Francisco-area casino. What this new deal would do is eliminate the need for pesky legislation granting individual recognition of tribal status: instead, groups interested in ignoring local gambling restrictions would simply apply to the Great Wh… err, the President… in Washington for the necessary permissions. And, needless to say: the Democrats are likely to look favorably on the petitions of such fine, loyal donors businessmen.
If this really bugs you, you may want to give your Senator a call at (202) 224-3121 and let him or her know that this provision shouldn’t be in the Senate version of the continuing resolution.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
H/T Instapundit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvP0uwl3Q6A
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
I dread the day this shows up on an oldies station.
And it will happen.
I refuse to justify myself on picking The A-Team. THERE WAS A FLYING TANK. That is reason enough.
And so, so long to The Princess and the Frog.
The Difference Engine was one of the first alt-history/steampunk books that I ever read; and it pretty much gave me a permanent taste for both. I suspect that the maps help: I love alternate history maps.
And so adieu, GURPS Basic Set: Characters, Fourth Edition. I have not forgotten why I was thinking about you, never fear.
(Via Hot Air) You think that Senator Gregg is maybe just a little bit ticked with the administration for that entire fiasco wrt being Secretary of Commerce*?
Could be, could be. Video summary: Gregg carefully pushed back on Andrea Mitchell’s agitprop that the looming Democratic tax hike was justified, noted that the long term solution to our problem involves SPENDING LESS MONEY, gently reminded all and sundry that it’s not the government’s money in the first place, and genially suggested that rich people who don’t mind paying more taxes should feel free to have a check cut.
Not bad for two minutes.
Moe Lane
I know that this would be a title with a lot of contenders, but let’s look at the evidence. It’s not because he’s for a death tax: that’s just ordinary tone-deafness, coupled with the standard Democratic politician’s assumption that it was all really their money all along, and they were just letting individual citizens hold on to it for a while. It’s not even that Congressman Sherman is demanding, in exchange for his vote, that the negotiated rate of 35% over 5 million (far too high, by the way) be retroactively applied to 2010.
It’s that the man apparently expects anybody sane to take him up on his offer. The Politico article delicately put the likelihood that Republicans would agree to this as being ‘questionable;’ the actual response from the GOP would be far earthier, and a good deal more direct. You might remember that in 2009 a trial balloon was floated to keep the 2010 death tax at 45% over 3.5 million; it got shot down in the Senate. The current number essentially duplicates the 2009 death tax rate, and echos a compromise put together by Senators Kyl and Lincoln earlier in the year; and if the tax compromise doesn’t pass the rate goes to 55% over 1 million in January. The White House does not want to explain that to the American people. Brad Sherman, on the other hand, is a five-term Congressman from a double-digit partisan district, which means that he was about due to start Embracing The Crazy anyway*. So, probably no real surprises here.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*I’m not the sort who will give a Troofer like Alex Jones traffic, but here’s a link to the search results that’ll show the Congressman appearing on Jones’ show to explain away his Embrace Of The Crazy… which pretty much tells you everything that you need to know, right there.
