Gresham’s Law II: THE REVENGE.

The first line says it all:

“Small businesses that received $682 million in IOUs from the state say California expects them to pay taxes on the worthless scraps of paper, but refuses to accept its own IOUs to pay debts or taxes.”

So a bunch of them are suing the state government.  The lead plaintiff in this one is a shirt manufacturer who got paid scrip for a product she provided… which she can’t use to pay the taxes on the sale. Which is interesting, because something like this happened to me in a dream, once.  And then the burning llama in an asbestos night-shirt surfaced from the pool of liquid nitrogen and told me that I had been chosen to lead the forces of Goodness against Kenny G*.

In other words, put me down for finding this ‘breathtakingly stupid,’ too.

Moe Lane

*No, I don’t have anything in particular against Kenny G.  Somebody has to do it, and at least he doesn’t destroy hotel rooms while on tour.

Crossposted to RedState.

GM’s environmental quid pro quo.

(H/T: Instapundit) I am honestly surprised to find that there are people surprised by this.

Among those clamoring for attention and payouts from Motors Liquidation Co., the company that assumed General Motors’ unwanted assets after its Chapter 11 filing, are the environmental and economic redevelopment departments of state governments. According to reports, when GM exited bankruptcy, its polluted factory and land sites were consumed by the Motor Liquidation, allowing the automaker to avoid the responsibility of cleaning up its mess, and state leaders fear there won’t be any money to clean the locations.

After all, this was the original point of the exercise.  GM was an unsustainable, debt-ridden mess; the government takeover and bankruptcy was designed to let it cut out the most diseased portions of its operations and reorganize as something more… ‘untainted,’ as it were.  Or possibly even just ‘less tainted.’  That this ends up with individual state governments left holding the bag on the cleanup* is either an unintended consequence, or just a previously-obscure detail, of the bailout/bankruptcy; it all depends on whether you see the administration as a collection of dangerous idiots, or as a collection of dangerous idiots.  A federal bailout of the state governments’ obligations to clean up a private industry’s ecological mess would certainly be a useful weapon in the federal government’s ongoing quest for ever-more power and oversight.

On the other hand, the White House can’t even spell “Barack Obama” reliably on official state documents, so it’s entirely possible that they stuck already-struggling states with the cleanup bill by the sheerest accident. Continue reading GM’s environmental quid pro quo.

Iron Man 2 footage… ‘leaked?’

I say ‘leaked’ because the director doesn’t seem to care too much. Personally, I can’t really watch it; too jumpy and bootleg for my tastes. AoSHQ has the video up, if you want to watch.

You probably do. It has Samuel L MFing Jackson in it*.

Moe Lane

*When I went to go see Iron Man in theaters, I stayed until the end – and got a family to sit down and wait with me. Made their day when they saw the reveal; making their day made mine.

So, essentially, Dungeon Lords sucks…

…which would handily explain why I found the quote-unquote “Collector’s Edition” on the ten buck stack at Target.  Before you ask, it was right next to Sid Meier’s Pirates!, which was also ten bucks, so I assumed that it would at least be all right.  Nope: can’t save a game without it crashing and the 3D is wonky.

Anyway: good fantasy game?  I’m looking for cheap, good, and at least a couple of years old, and I already have Diablo II.

Rep Jared Polis (D, CO-02) swamped at not-town hall.

Expected 30 at a sidewalk coffee place: got several hundred.

A few things to note:

  • No SEIU on hand, so everything stayed peaceful.
  • CO-02 is D+11 and includes the city of Boulder.  They haven’t elected a Republican Congressman there since the 1970s.  A front line in the 2010 election wars, it isn’t.
  • Man, but there are a lot of ticked-off old people out there who want to talk about why they don’t like the way Congress is handling the health-care situation.

Shame the Speaker of the House would rather blather on about swastika-wielding mobs – hey!  She means the ticked-off old people, doesn’t she?

Moe Lane

PS: I think that Polis may be getting it, a little.  Or at least he’s not a natural born damned fool who’d casually insult an entire voting demographic by calling them Nazi astroturfing shills.

Crossposted to RedState.

My summary of ‘Crunch time for Obama.’

(Via Hot Air Headlines) In case you don’t have time to read Doug Schoen’s piece:

Despite my claim that the Republican Party does not have any policies or ideas, it is my opinion that the Obama administration should take a leaf from the Clinton administration – which I, Doug Schoen, saved – and rip off all the policies and ideas that I am required to pretend that the Republicans do not have, lest the Obama administration suffer the same fate in 2010 that the Clinton administration- which I, Doug Schoen, saved – faced in 1994.  Of course, should that happen, I am available to duplicate my magic – did I mention that I, Doug Schoen, saved the Clinton administration? – and since no Republican legislator is literate, we’ll be able to get away with it.

Third Way!  Which is to say, steal from Republicans and take the credit.

Really, it’s like some sort of demented resume cover letter.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

‘Are you paying attention now?’ (#iamthemob )

Caleb’s covering this at both RedState and ActiCons, but I’m going to reproduce it here anyway.  It’s more from the Gladney Incident:

Note the physical attack on the woman filming the incident.  These people aren’t reacting well to having their activities on the public record.

Moe Lane

PS: Carry a camera.

CARRY A CAMERA.

CARRY.
A.
CAMERA.