#rsrh Two words: demonsheep.

We all thought that was entertainingly dumb, too.  Up to the point where Carly Fiorina, you know, won the primary.

Mike Weinstein is running for re-election in the Florida state legislature, which is probably why he figured that he could risk a little goofiness. And no, it’s not a parody.

And… no, it’s not actually a bad ad.  Goofy, but not bad.

Moe Lane

Anybody else notice that the Democrats – particularly their cheerleaders in the Online Left – just aren’t having any fun this election cycle?  Bitter sourpusses, the lot of them.

#rsrh Letting Other People Do It: Stimulus edition.

I am so incredibly glad that the CA primary is over: I can link to Mickey Kaus again.  I think that I’ve mentioned it before, but I wasn’t willing to risk losing the pickup in November by making him look like a viable alternative to Barbara Boxer.

Anyway, Mickey’s bringing up this quote from Jon Alter’s book The Promise:

The biggest frustration involved infrastructure. Obama said later that he learned that “one of the biggest lies in government is the idea of ‘shovel-ready’ projects.” It turned out that only about $20 billion to $40 billion in construction contracts were truly ready to go. The rest were tied up in the endless contracting delays and bureaucratic hassles associated with building anything in America. [E.A.]

…and asking:

Did Obama really not know this back in January, 2009? I mean, Alter’s book pretty convincincly demonstrates that the President is a very smart man. But a smart man would have to have had virtually no contact, direct or vicarious, with government not to realize state and federal  construction projects are bound up with time-consuming rules (like the Davis-Bacon Act’s “prevailing wage” requirements) that undermine their Keynesian utility.

Continue reading #rsrh Letting Other People Do It: Stimulus edition.

Third-party Hail Marys and the Democratic party.

Very entertaining news from Stu Rothenberg:

An unusual number of Democratic candidates running this cycle are basing their victory scenarios on the existence of Independent or third-party candidates in their races. Are their hopes reasonable or are they merely grasping at straws?

They’re merely grasping at straws.  To skip ahead a bit:

…more often than not, Independents and third-party candidates see their support evaporate as Election Day approaches, as voters realize that a vote for an also-ran is a wasted vote.

For an example of this, look no further than the 2009 NJ gubernatorial election. If you look at the polls for that election, you’ll see that virtually every scenario that had Jon Corzine ahead relied on double-digit results for the third-party candidate.  The Democrats even went to the point of doing robocalls for the third-party candidate, which ended up doing nothing much for Corzine.  Third-party support had been declining in NJ for weeks beforehand, precisely in the fashion and the reasons that Stu noted above.
Continue reading Third-party Hail Marys and the Democratic party.

Today is Chocolate Day.

Apparently, it’s the 460th anniversary of the introduction of chocolate to Europe.  Or not: how the heck do you put a date on that sort of thing?

…Forget it.  It’s Chocolate Day.  There are three foods that I will always consume: bacon, chocolate, and Coca-Cola.  Interestingly, I am not in favor of combining any of the two directly – yes, even Coke and chocolate ice cream.  Gotta be vanilla…

Moe Lane Continue reading Today is Chocolate Day.

#rsrh Justin Bieber’s Online Contest.

What could possibly go wrong?

Justin Bieber is apparently the subject of a new Internet prank, which now has the singer facing a tour of North Korea.

Bieber held a contest on his website encouraging fans to vote for where the next stop on his “My World” tour should be, with no restrictions on which countries could be voted for.

Oh, dear.

The contest ended up with more than half a million votes to send the 16-year-old teen icon to the communist nation.

4chan…

…and I don’t think that we need to go any further than that, do we? With that name you know how it ends, after all.  Anyway, somebody at Hot Air Headlines really, really wants this to happen; I’m just mildly impressed that the second place finisher was apparently Israel.  Which he should totally… sing, is it?  I’m apparently not in his target demographic*… for.

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh Justin Bieber’s Online Contest.

#rsrh A must read on school choice.

The title is “The education debacle of the decade” – and wasn’t it, just? It’s about the Democratic party’s successful efforts to re-segregate the DC school system, in the guise of killing the Opportunity Scholarship Program… and I’m being even blunter about this than author Bob Ewing says that the Washington Post is being (no link to WaPo at site):

It’s clear, though, from how the destruction of the [OSP] program is being orchestrated, that issues such as parents’ needs, student performance and program effectiveness don’t matter next to the political demands of teachers’ unions.

Sure, teachers’ unions hate school choice.  Exposing a monopoly to market forces always ticks off the monopolists.  But even if the teachers’ unions had been on-board with the OSP, the single-minded way that the Democratic party leadership went hammer and tongs after this small program tells me that white, Democratic legislators have a real problem with poor minority students suddenly appearing in their white, privileged, private schools.  And now that they have both branches of government, they’re finally in a position to do something about it. Continue reading #rsrh A must read on school choice.

Special election in WV?

The report is that West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin (D) will be pushing for having a 2010 special election for the late Senator Robert Byrd’s seat.  In this he’s joined by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R), who shares with Manchin a desire for the job.  Which is fine: neither politician is making a secret of it and they’d be the most likely candidates for 2012 anyway.

There does seem to be a general consensus that while a special election is not required, it would be desirable:

Secretary of State Natalie Tenant has already called on state lawmakers to revise the law to allow for a special election.

“For me, there is a distinct line between how I personally feel and what I can legally do,” Tennant said on her website late last week. “I personally believe that the voters of the state should be allowed to elect a successor to Senator Byrd sooner than November of 2012.”

Continue reading Special election in WV?