Cook Political Report upgrades Harry Reid’s seat to ‘Toss-up.’

I don’t have a subscription, so I can’t give their reasoning precisely why – but I understand it has something to do with the fact that Reid now trails a ham sandwich in the polls.

You know,iIt’d be funny if somebody lost their race next year because the DSCC had to give Reid money to help his campaign out.  It’d be funnier if Reid lost his race next year because the DSCC didn’t give him any money to help his campaign out.  It’d be funniest of all if both things happened.

Crossposted to RedState.

Why they won’t bring back Firefly, Ace.

Since you asked… if they bring back Firefly, then they have to deal with a fan base with views.  The browncoats aren’t going to take too kindly to the suits urinating in the mix again, and the suits don’t want to deal with a Joss Whedon, given that he would be in a distinctly superior bargaining position for it.

Besides.  No Wash.  No Shepherd Book.  That’s a hard thing to face.

Moe Lane

Big Government, ACORN, and tax advice for underaged brothels.

[UPDATE]: Welcome Instapundit readers.

So, Andrew Breitbart’s new website Big Government wanted to start off with a splash – and they’ve certainly done so, thanks to the post Chaos to Glory. In it, James O’Keefe went with an associate to ACORN’s Baltimore office, with the story that the associate is a prostitute who needs to set up her income – and the income of a baker’s dozen of underage El Salvadoran illegal immigrant prostitutes – to fund O’Keefe’s political campaigns. ACORN of course immediately informs them that they are depraved abusive monsters, throws them out, and calls the cops…

Yeah, right. What actually happens is that they get a crash course in Tax Fraud and How To Set Up A Brothel 101: links are to videos, in case the above doesn’t load (their servers must be getting hammered, for some reason). Transcript here: you will find that your jaw steadily drops more and more as this goes on. They didn’t blink at the prostitute bit (just reclassified it as entertainer, and walked through useful deductions): they didn’t blink at the underaged El Salvadoran prostitutes thing (just worked out how many could be claimed as dependents without things getting flagged); and they didn’t blink on the request for advice on avoiding a former pimp (they just gave some, which didn’t include “Call the cops” and “Stop being a prostitute”).

After a certain point, you will ask yourself if this can possibly be for real. Breitbart did, himself. This, in fact, pushes the very limit of the Too Good to Be True envelope – but the videos are simply too good to miss. Plus, ACORN’s screams of outrage are diagnostic: they’re essentially claiming that when asked, other offices didn’t give out tax advice on running illegal underage brothels.

So there. Continue reading Big Government, ACORN, and tax advice for underaged brothels.

Two takes on last night’s speech.

Little Miss Attila’s.  Nicely succinct.  Tori Amos reference, too.

Former Governor Sarah Palin’s.  Hopefully, Joy will forgive me for also linking to this, in what should be her linkfest; it’s just that I’ve been getting the most entertaining direct-to-spam comments by people who absolutely must let me know that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare THAT WOMAN couldn’t have written those articles.  It seems a shame to not give those poor people some encouragement to keep pounding the table and shouting, seeing as I’m not letting them have a forum to espouse their conspiracy theories.

Because I’m a nice guy that way.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Joe Wilson: sorry if you were offended when I called the President a liar.

Having caused a bit of a ruckus last night of a sort unmatched in incivility and depravity since… 2005, when Democrats booed the President at his State of the Union address… Representative Joe Wilson (R, SC) wants you to know that he is very sorry if any one was offended that he pointed out that the President is a liar:

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

Notice that he didn’t say anything about a lack of accuracy – then again, as Legal Insurrection notes, this would be because Joe Wilson was being accurate when he called the President a liar: HR 3200 covers illegal immigrants, and every attempt to make it explicit that it wouldn’t has been blocked by Congressional Democrats.  No, it’s just that Joe Wilson recognizes that it was mean of him to wreck the President’s narrative that way by calling the President a liar.  And it was mean of him: as we saw last night, President Obama isn’t exactly what you’d call quick on his rhetorical feet when things don’t go his way.

As you might have guessed, I’m amused at the outrage shown to Joe Wilson‘s calling the President a liar by the professionally outraged: not only because it’s fairly provincial of them*, but because the outrage fairly clearly covers a certain uneasiness.  This is new for Republicans and conservatives, you see.  We don’t march.  We don’t gather for protests.  We don’t gather for protests in large numbers.  We don’t take time off to go to protests.  We don’t force the opposition to react to what we say.  We don’t interrupt.  We don’t push back when pushed.  And we don’t loudly call out people for their lies when they lie.  At least, we didn’t do all of that, on a regular basis – but we’re doing it now.  Change!

And Hope, too.

Moe Lane

*You should see what legislators in other countries get up to.  This was nothing.

Crossposted to RedState.

Charlie Sheen interviews for Green Jobs Czar position.

Fortunately, the White House is going to avoid hiring 9/11 Troofers overtly for a while – bad news for members of the Democratic party’s base who haven’t scored executive branch jobs yet, but good news for the rest of the country. And they aren’t going to give 9/11 Troofers exclusive interviews with the President… probably. Maybe.  One hopes.  Well, they will almost certainly not let Charlie Sheen anywhere near the Oval Office while a recording device is on and running, which is something.  Not much, but something.

All of this via AoSHQ: don’t click on this link to the fake interview (it’s to the Google cache of the Prison Planet article, which should tell you everything that you need to know right there) unless you feel like stress-testing your sanity a little.  You keep reading, and reading, and reading, and waiting for the punchline.  But the punchline never comes. And you realize that it never will.

Moe Lane
Continue reading Charlie Sheen interviews for Green Jobs Czar position.