NRCC targets Democrats using Speaker Pelosi.

I was originally going to go with something from Coleridge, but an albatross necklace is not exactly the image that either I or the GOP was trying to invoke, here.

The NRCC will be launching a barrage of television, radio, phone, and physical advertisements today at specific Democratic-controlled House Districts. The theme of the message: Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s attacks on the CIA, the implications of those attacks, and the curious disinterest in selected House Democrats in facing up to those implications. The television ad for MD-01’s Frank Kratovil sums it up:

If the CIA deceived the Speaker of the House, then the CIA is committing a crime. The GOP has been saying for a couple of weeks now that Speaker Pelosi needs to provide either evidence or an apology; and when she provided neither, the GOP called for a bipartisan investigation of the CIA. Speaker Pelosi and her cronies in the House had it squashed.  So the NRCC is going to ask selected voters how they feel about the idea that their legislators may be supporting a slanderer and liar.

Specific breakdown of names/type of advertisements below the fold: I’ll be updating with the scripts once I get them.

Moe Lane Continue reading NRCC targets Democrats using Speaker Pelosi.

The Three Wolf Moon Shirt Meme hits mainstream.

From the ABC report:
Interviewer: “And what does it say to you, when you see this design now?”
T-Shirt maker: [pauses, looks at t-shirt machine, looks back] “Money.”

According to ABC News (Via Hot Air Headlines), I* apparently helped participate in an Internet meme by bringing up the Three Wolf Moon shirt earlier. Which is not all that important, except for this bit:

The Three Wolf Moon shirt isn’t new –- it’s been on sale for a couple of years. But since the viral thread took off this month, sales went through the roof. It’s currently selling more than a hundred an hour, and it’s the #1 seller in Amazon’s apparel line.

Really. 100/hour?

Feel free to let me have a piece of that action, then. I’m not proud.

Moe Lane

PS: Tell all your friends.

*No, of course ABC News didn’t mention me or the site.

Joe Sestak to challenge Arlen Specter in primary.

It’s not ‘official’, but unless Sestak is sufficiently a practical joker as to send his supporters handwritten phony fund-raising notes, it’s happening. Guess that means that Arlen Specter is going to have to face a tough primary battle after all.

Meanwhile…

Moderate Pa. Republicans warming to Toomey

Moderate Republican leaders have stopped publicly pushing to recruit a less-conservative alternative to front-runner Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, a sign that he has begun to calm concerns about his electability.

Toomey has redoubled efforts to court skeptics in the party establishment in the two weeks since former Gov. Tom Ridge declined to enter the race for the GOP nomination despite the pleadings of prominent moderates.

Karma. It’s what’s for dinner.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

VPOTUS mocks POTUS for overuse of TOTUS.

As part of the speech to the Air Force Academy:

Then, not content to leave without a jaunty ad lib, Biden noted that heavy winds were gusting through the ceremonies. One of his two teleprompters had toppled over. Alluding to the jokes of Obama’s reliance on the speech-facilitators, Biden added, “What I am going to tell the president when I tell him his teleprompter is broken. What will he do then.”

Stammer, hem, and haw, of course. The President isn’t actually all that great an orator – well, more accurately, while he can give a pretty speech he’s not all that great at giving memorable ones. It’s that cool detachment thing that he’s so lauded for; POTUS is rarely particularly engaged in what he’s saying, which means that his listeners have to supply the emotional resonance themselves. That’s one major reason why people rarely remember actual lines from his speeches.

I could be very harsh at this point, but I’ll be nice and just say that this level of not-caring also means that it’s harder to ad-lib when things go wrong.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Burris did in fact make an offer for the Senate seat.

Harry, you ignorant slut.

I am perilously close to being gobsmacked by this transcript of the Burris/Blagojevich conversation (via Hot Air). I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that there’s enough there to indicate that Roland Burris flat-out lied about not trading favors and money for the Senate seat.  I am not, however, so stunned as to be unable to remind people about this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this

Hold on: let’s see that video again.

Ha!

this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and, finally, this.  In short – and may you have as an enjoyable time reviewing those posts as I did – Rod Blagojevich’s pick of Roland Burris for the Illinois Senate was a transparent trap – and Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic Senate caucus sprung it anyway.  In fact, not being content with springing the trap, Reid and his caucus insisted on making every possible mistake that they could, too.  All because they were afraid.  People will be writing about this act of political revenge fifty years from now, and mocking the Senator from Nevada on every page, too.

Deservedly.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

You can have my gyro when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

It’s like we have our own home-grown crop of Puritans these days. Only without the work ethic. And the radical egalitarianism. And the fierce hatred of slavery and anti-Semitism. And, heck, the desire to eat a freaking piece of meat every so often:

GIVE up lamb roasts and save the planet. Government advisers are developing menus to combat climate change by cutting out “high carbon” food such as meat from sheep, whose burping poses a serious threat to the environment.

Out will go kebabs, greenhouse tomatoes and alcohol. Instead, diners will be encouraged to consume more potatoes and seasonal vegetables, as well as pork and chicken, which generate fewer carbon emissions.

I have my own suggestion for these people: you want to cut down on carbon emissions? Stop talking. Less talking, thus less need to breathe, thus less carbon dioxide being emitted. You could also try not going to extravagantly wasteful climate change conferences on jet planes, too. Just a thought.

On the bright side, I now know where I’m ordering lunch from.

Moe Lane

PS: H/T: Instapundit, who also came up with a very pithy saying about this: “I’ll believe that it’s a problem when the people saying that it’s a problem start acting like it’s a problem.”

Crossposted to RedState.

Lovecraft is Missing is back. Oh, and the Tori Spelling Cthulhu movie is out.

Although if you already read that webcomic, you probably know that already; and if you don’t read that webcomic, you probably don’t care.

Moving on, the Tori Spelling Cthulhu finally made it to DVD. I still have yet to see it; I get the general impression that the word ‘umm’ is used a lot, for a variety of reasons.

Maryland millionaires’ massive migration.

There is a glaring inaccuracy in the linked WSJ article on vanishing Maryland millionaires. Essentially, It is not “a two-minute drill in soak-the-rich economics:”

Maryland couldn’t balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O’Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were “willing and able to pay their fair share.” The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would “grin and bear it.”

One year later, nobody’s grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller’s office concedes is a “substantial decline.” On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year — even at higher rates.

It is a one-minute, fifty-second drill in soak-the-rich economics.  I was curious, and timed myself reading it aloud.  Admittedly, I talk quickly sometimes, but I made it a point to try to pace myself for this one.
Continue reading Maryland millionaires’ massive migration.

Montana town offers to take Gitmo detainees.

Hardin, Montana – a very small, very poor town with a very new, very empty jail, is willing to take on the responsibility of holding Gitmo detainees:

Hardin borrowed $27 million through bonds to build the Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility in hopes of creating new employment opportunities. The jail was ready for prisoners two years ago, but has yet to house a single prisoner.

People here say politics in the capital of Helena has kept it empty. But the city council last month voted 5-0 to back a proposal to bring Gitmo detainees — some of the most hardened terrorists in the world — to the facility.

Montanan Senators (both of whom are Democrats) wet themselves in response:

The state’s congressional leaders have lined up against the plan. “Housing potential terrorists in Montana is not good for our state,” Max Baucus, the state’s senior Democratic senator, wrote to [economic development director Greg Smith]. “These people stop at nothing. Their primary goal in life, and death, is to destroy America.”

Adds Sen. Jon Tester, “I just don’t think it’s appropriate, that’s all. I don’t think they know what they’re asking for.”

Continue reading Montana town offers to take Gitmo detainees.