Ten steps for fixing Massachusetts.

They’re all good ones, but #4 resonates:

No. 4: This one is for the Republican party: Run candidates in every legislative district, even if you have to put up the lame and the halt. That was how Tip O’Neill did it in the 1940s – he’d field Democrats in even the most Republican districts, getting the challenger’s name out and waiting for the GOP incumbent to retire or move on, at which point the Democrat would have more name recognition than the new Republican. Every cycle, Tip’s Dems picked off a few more GOP seats. The Democrats finally took over the Massachusetts House in 1946, and haven’t looked back. The other plus: Whenever a summer scandal breaks (think OUI, think young girlfriend working for lobbyist, think money-laundering scheme), the Republicans would already have a candidate in place to take advantage of the anti-incumbent vote.

#4, in fact, has resonance outside of Massachusetts. Frankly, that’s one of the reasons that we won LA-02: if we hadn’t had keeping running candidates there we would have never been able to take advantage of Jefferson’s weakness. Make ’em work for it, and wait patiently for our chance to take the shot. I also like Jules Crittenden’s #11/#1: having these people work part-time appeals on general principles. The less time that they’re there, the less opportunities to spend money they’ll have.

Moe Lane

This would be the point where people tell me that Massachusetts is impossible to reform, impossible to repair, and impossible to flip. So we shouldn’t even think about trying, because we don’t have a chance in heck of doing anything useful.

Funny: that’s what they said about Louisiana.

Crossposted to RedState.

Everybody in the SCA has had this forwarded to them by now.

I forget where I saw this, but it made me wince:

Man attacks cops with medieval battle ax

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL — Authorities say a Panama City Beach motel guest tried to scare off deputies with a medieval battle ax, a knife and a long sword.

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office reports that deputies responded to the Sting Ray Motel Tuesday morning after management called 911 to complain that a guest was acting strange.

When a deputy stepped out of his patrol car, officials say 33-year-old Terrence Croskery threw a battle ax and then a 6-inch knife through the window of the motel room.

One of the few nice things about the current dispute over the extent of Second Amendment rights in this country is that everybody’s so busy arguing over guns that almost nobody talks about swords, axes, maces, crossbows, bows, and glaive glaive glaive guisiarme glaives*. And those of us that might have such things on the walls, or in our closets, are very happy about that state of affairs; so stories like this don’t help. “Hand-powered” doesn’t mean “free to wave it at policemen,” kids…

Moe Lane

*Classical reference.

Supposedly, some sadists decide to seek a medical career.

Medical field can be draw for sickos who like to hurt, shrink says (Via Fark). If you look at the article, you’ll see that it’s actually not really offering compelling evidence for that; it’s mostly suggesting a reason why the quote-unquote “Craigslist killer” is the way that he is, assuming that the guy that they’re calling the “Craiglist killer” is actually the “Craigslist killer.” I’m a little startled that Fark covered this with an Obvious tag, in fact: as the guy’s own book would book, this isn’t really News.

Then again, being able to replay the song below features largely in my decision to write about this, so there’s that.


Little Shop of Horrors

David Broder seems to have a problem with history.

That is me being polite.

(HT: Hot Air Headlines) In the process of trying to ‘convince’ the President to not re-energize the Right by starting witch hunts over interrogation – and in the process of mischaracterizing a largely Democratic party-spawned complaint over AIG bonuses as ‘populist’ – David Broder quite accidentally said something foolish:

Obama, to his credit, has ended one of the darkest chapters of American history, when certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion in hopes of extracting information about threats to the United States.

That’s not even in the top ten. I came up with the list below the fold in about five minutes, and I bet that someone with more than a heavy minor in history could do even better.

So now that we’ve had our review, David: would you please stop pandering to the prejudices and rationalizations of your liberal readers like this? You’re still ostensibly a conservative, which means that you’re still expected to demonstrate a knowledge of American history that exceeds that of a very bright fifth-grader.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Best Served Cold Watch: Obama abandoning Murtha.

I have to admit that when it comes to avenging slights made against it this administration has both total recall and infinite patience. What’s below (via Instapundit) is probably the most important part of this New York Times article about Jack Murtha’s travails:

While past presidents often courted Mr. Murtha with phone calls and private meetings, President Obama has extended to him no such courtesies. On a visit to the White House, the lawmaker told senior defense officials that it would be “foolish” and “ridiculous” to cancel all of a $13 billion contract to buy new presidential helicopters, as he later recounted to a defense industry newsletter. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has insisted on scrapping the deal as a symbol of waste.

And in a recent meeting with the secretary, Mr. Murtha pushed a plan to divide a $35 billion contract to build a new airborne refueling tanker between two rival contractors — a compromise that pleases both but would cost the government much more. Mr. Gates listened with little response, several people briefed on their conversation said, but he later dismissed it.

You see, restrictions on how, how often, and how much one may trade favors for cash can be finessed. There’s always a loophole or an exception; in fact, often simple indifference on the part of those with oversight can be enough. But Jack Murtha’s power comes from his supposed access. He is not supposed to be one who can be slighted – or worse, ignored.
Continue reading Best Served Cold Watch: Obama abandoning Murtha.

End of the Tamil Tigers?

They apparently have their back to the wall at this point:

Sri Lanka rebels call ceasefire

A Tamil Tiger spokesman told the BBC the move was due to what he called an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis”.

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary however dismissed the announcement as “a joke”, insisting the rebels must surrender.

The rebels have been beaten back to a 12 sq km (5 sq m) area. The UN says more than 160,000 civilians have fled from there, but 50,000 remain.

…and by most accounts they’re fairly deserving of their fate. Not that the Sri Lankan government itself is a paragon of virtue: reading between the lines here, said government seems to be slowly shifting towards a designation of ‘unpleasant.’ On the other hand, a lot of it seems to be due to the pressures of fighting a long, drawn-out regional civil war against what appears to be a much more unpleasant opponent, so possibly once the TT is gone the Sri Lankans will relax things a bit. It’s possible: after all, it’s a “Democratic Socialist Republic” that actually tolerates opposition parties and lets them win national elections. Usually, a title like that is a code phrase for “Communist dystopia…”

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

‘100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES:’ the New York Post Review. [Now with a mistake that’s all the Post’s!]

[UPDATE] Hot Air reports that the New York Post put the wrong name on a quote: it was Meghan Clyne who made the comments below, not Governor Sarah Palin. Stick this one in the Too Good To Be True files.

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) It ranges from the petty to the serious – honestly, I don’t think that not getting a shelter dog ranks up there with mishandling the ‘stimulus’, or even killing minority scholarships in DC – but the NYP has a full range, and any article that has quotes from both Glenn Beck and TalkLeft is going to be fascinating reading. And if it all seems so terribly unfair… well. Consider this a teachable moment, then: with the lesson being it’s not really a good idea to take a man and raise him up as some sort of god, or at least an avatar. Men may make mistakes; gods may not. Mistakes are intolerable in gods.

But never mind my natterings: Governor Sarah Palin Meghan Clyne was kind enough to opine for the NYP article, and excerpts of her comments are past the fold. Continue reading ‘100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES:’ the New York Post Review. [Now with a mistake that’s all the Post’s!]