White House pulls DNC ad to mollify… Bob Dole.

How worried is the White House that it doesn’t have any Republican support for its health care rationing bill?

WASHINGTON (Oct 11) – The Democratic National Committee is canceling a television ad touting GOP support for health care reform after protests from one of the Republicans mentioned, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.

[snip]

Dole told ABC News on Sunday that he objected to the ad’s criticism of the current Republican leadership.

“I just didn’t think it was fair, when I’ve tried to be helpful in encouraging a bipartisan solution, for the DNC to run an ad that I interpreted and I know others did as a backhanded comment about Republicans,” Dole said.

This worried. Also, desperate: after all, while I have nothing against former Senator Dole I’m also not that interested in his position on health care. If the President wants the GOP to sign off on his health care proposals, there are plenty of current Republican elected officials for him to court. The complication that most of them have been repeatedly rebuffed by this administration for months (and are thus legitimately disbelieving of the administration’s motives) is a complication of the administration’s own making, and is their complication to resolve. The White House can start by apologizing to Rep. Boehner and the rest of the House leadership for shutting them out for six months. Continue reading White House pulls DNC ad to mollify… Bob Dole.

Wizards create magic spell to produce eternal energy.

OK, you read this article and tell me whether or not I summarized it accurately:

(PhysOrg.com) — Physicists at Yale University have made the first definitive measurements of “persistent current,” a small but perpetual electric current that flows naturally through tiny rings of metal wire even without an external power source.

The team used nanoscale cantilevers, an entirely novel approach, to indirectly measure the current through changes in the magnetic force it produces as it flows through the ring. “They’re essentially little floppy diving boards with the rings sitting on top,” said team leader Jack Harris, associate professor of physics and applied physics at Yale. The findings appear in the October 9 issue of Science.

The counterintuitive current is the result of a quantum mechanical effect that influences how electrons travel through metals, and arises from the same kind of motion that allows the electrons inside an atom to orbit the nucleus forever. “These are ordinary, non-superconducting metal rings, which we typically think of as resistors,” Harris said. “Yet these currents will flow forever, even in the absence of an applied voltage.”

As to what they’re going to do with this shiny new ability… well, that’s up to the people with the robes and pointy hats. But with any luck at all we’ll get a blaster pistol out of it, or something.

Via Fark Geek.

Trying to decide whether to keep bothering with YouTube comments.

  • On the one hand, I’m not really impressed by the general tone you get over there.  I derive some mild amusement out of deleting the goofier comments, but it’s a bit of a drag.
  • On the other hand, no comments means less traffic on that site, and YouTube makes its money off of on-site advertising, right?  Or does YouTube not make money?  Anyway, it seems vaguely like freeloading.
  • On the gripping hand, it’s not like I’m getting anything like value-added coming from that direction anyway.

It’s interesting: my general indifference is more or less fighting with my ingrained tendencies towards sadism on this one.  Which is odd, because typically with me sadism wins: I suspect that it’s because the hate mail that gets generated via that avenue is, well, lame…

Yet more fanfic from our pundit class.

The I-like-to-write-about-what-the-President-who-lives-in-my-head-tells-me brigade is growing:

Apparently none of them actually read what the President has already said on the subject.  Which is to say: he’s happy enough to praise the military, in their place.  Which is distinctly behind advocates for climate change.

Moe Lane

*(“How is this different than what Mickey Kaus wrote? – ed.” Two reasons: first, Mickey was writing advice, and advice that he already knew was going to be rejected out of hand.  Second, I don’t mess with Mickey if I can possibly help it. – ML”)

PS: Yes, I’d like to stop writing about this, too.

Crossposted to RedState.

Q. How does Al Gore handle inconvenient truths?

A. By getting the microphone cut off, of course. Via Breitbart TV and the B-Cast:

For the record, I find the sight of Big Green shills stomping on the free speech of an independent whistleblower – yes, that was fun to write; thanks for asking – to be just a sign that they themselves know that they’re having problems pushing their agenda these days. When even the BBC’s no longer a reliable stenographer (H/T: AoSHQ), well…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

John Aravosis is upset about the HRC speech.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Yes, everybody else knows that the President’s trust-me yesterday on ending DADT is more of the same: nicely prepackaged rhetoric; good, standard delivery – and absolutely no substance whatsoever.  And that won’t change.  So you, and a large portion of the left-sphere, are now unhappy about the whole situation.

And?

I mean, really: what are you going to do about it?  Vote Republican?

Moe Lane

Links via Instapundit & Jake Tapper.

Crossposted to RedState.