#rsrh Correcting Newsweek. Again.

I’m not going to get into the supposedly-ratified first 13th Amendment that banned titles of nobility – no, really; I’m not getting into it, and I don’t really care if people think that I’m a tool of the Illuminati for doing so* – but this bit from Newsweek makes my teeth ache:

Desiring to get out in front of the issue—or possibly seeking to score points against the Federalists, who had their own embarrassing ties to the British aristocracy—Republican Sen. Philip Reed of Maryland introduced an amendment meant to strengthen the existing “emoluments clause” in Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution.

God, it’s bad when a major newsweekly isn’t even up to the editorial standards of Wikipedia. Continue reading #rsrh Correcting Newsweek. Again.

Charlie Rangel will not resign…

…and will ride this puppy all the way down, bless his heart.

For those living in a cave, Charlie Rangel* (D, NY) is about to get served with ethics charges by the House Ethics committee for committing ethical violations (mostly involving real estate) beyond the power of the House Ethics committee leadership to plausibly overlook… not that they didn’t try their best.  In keeping with this tradition of benign overlooksight, it turns out that Rangel met with the Ethics Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D, CA) without any pesky Republicans around to hear about any particular deals that Rangel might or might not have been willing to make to avoid embarrassing the Democratic party in public.  I can’t imagine why the GOP would be worried about that, though: it’s not like Rangel gave three Democratic members of the Ethics Committee campaign money… oh.  Right.  He did. Continue reading Charlie Rangel will not resign…

To the #DGA : now THIS is a campaign ad.

Seeing as the one that the Democratic Governors Association came up with recently was simultaneously: foul-mouthed; pathetically lame; and very possibly in violation of American copyright law… I’d thought that I’d take pity on the poor, doomed fellows and let them take a look at what a good campaign ad looks like.  From the RGA, a reminder that there’s an election in 14 weeks:

14 Weeks from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

And I invite the DGA to try to beat that. Mostly because it’s remarkably funny to watch them flail around trying to look like actual winners.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Kerry’s tax avoiding: right idea, wrong reason.

I agree and disagree with John Hinderaker about John Kerry, Millionaire (he owns a mansion and a yacht).  The basic background: Senator Kerry (D, MA) built and bought a yacht overseas and has parked it outside of Massachusetts so as to avoid paying Massachusetts taxes on it, which are fairly significant.  At least, he was: now that he’s been caught Kerry is making it-was-a-big-misunderstanding noises.  Of course.

On the general point that John makes, I agree that if you have a choice between a state that puts an onerous tax burden on the construction and maintenance on an item that you wish to own, and a state that does not, it is only rational to pick the state that does not.  In this case, Rhode Island decided that it wanted the business more than it wanted an ‘equitable’ tax burden; Massachusetts did not.  Both states got what they wanted.  RI got the business, and MA got the smug feeling of knowing that the rich would get soaked if they tried to do business in MA.  It’s hardly RI’s fault that MA is now realizing that smug doesn’t balance a spreadsheet. Continue reading Kerry’s tax avoiding: right idea, wrong reason.

‘How to talk to a liberal?’

You mean, about politics and stuff?  Oh, that’s easy:

Don’t.

Seriously, I have no expectations of changing any of my liberal friends’ – several of whom read this blog – minds on any topic.  In fact, I only get into political discussions offline with people that I know damned well, and preferably on topics where we’re all in general agreement on the broad outlines anyway.  I only get into political arguments with my mom, because I know that she enjoys getting my goat on it and she’s not going to let politics get in the way of her grandkids*.  And I’m not the sort to hang out with people who espouse pedestrian, dreary conspiracy theories (and all political conspiracy theories are dreary and pedestrian, unless they involve Rod Blagojevich). Continue reading ‘How to talk to a liberal?’

Paul Ryan guts Chris Matthews.

Yeah, I know.  This is news?

I don’t like to encourage taking Chris Matthews seriously… and I guess that I’m not doing that here, either.  God knows that Rep. Paul Ryan (R) didn’t particularly raise a sweat in making both Matthews and Rep. Joe Crowley (D) look like dolts:

The ref should have stepped in and stopped that fight, huh? Crowley should be particularly incensed, given that he got knocked down by the spillover. I mean, really: by the time it was over Rep. Crowley was effectively bragging that his district was too poor to support small businesses that were successful enough to be affected by the tax rollback. That’s either… stupid, or ignorant; take your pick, they’re about equally unflattering to Crowley’s mother-wit. Continue reading Paul Ryan guts Chris Matthews.

So, I asked myself: “How to make the oil spill…”

[UPDATE]: Glenn Reynolds is ever-vigilant.

…worse?”

And I said, “Well, the spill itself could spontaneously achieve self-awareness, coalesce into a globular carbon mass of malice, and hare off to an abyssal lair from whence it could plot dark, inky dreams of conquest.”

Yeah. About that.

For 86 days, oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s damaged well, dumping some 200 million gallons of crude into sensitive ecosystems. BP and the federal government have amassed an army to clean the oil up, but there’s one problem — they’re having trouble finding it.”

Via @BillSTL.

Seriously, if it’s really gone that’s great.  But we haven’t gotten any favors so far, so why should the universe start now?