Wagoner out at GM.

Just to get into the spirit of the thing, I had somebody translate my post on the subject into something perhaps a bit more fitting for the mood.

“Barack Obama, il leader statunitense, oggi licenzia Richard Wagoner, il direttore del colosso automobilistico General Motors. Il funzionario Steven Rattner, del comitato ministeriale Gruppo Autoindustria, e’ impegnato con la sopravvista della GM. Assistente al Rattner sara’ Fritz Henderson, finora un manager a GM, da oggi il direttore.

Secondo il Sig. Obama, la crisi economica necessita che gli impiegati della GM dovranno subirsi a “sacrifizi.” Il Duce degli Stati Uniti ha promesso un avvenire piu’ favorevole per i lavoratori, e giustizia sociale per tutti.”

Crossposted to RedState.

I’ll raise Mark Steyn’s offer to two bucks, even.

It’s only worth twenty-seven cents to me personally because I don’t need confirmation: there’s simply no way that anybody could be as obsessed over Sarah Palin as Andrew Sullivan is unless he was carrying around a raging case of closeted heterosexuality.

Up to and including wearing the moose head.

Crossposted to RedState.

Mass Cane Toad Culling in Australia.

It’s called “Toad Day Out,” and the Australians apparently loathe the targets of this latest holiday with an unholy passion. Do check out some of the quotes in that link, by the way: they’re pretty good.

Personally, I’m still trying to figure out how the Latest Headlines feature on my Firefox toolbar knew that I was the sort of person who would be interested in this story. It’s kind of alarming, really.

Dennis Blair does not learn his lesson on Chas Freeman.

Hi, I am one of those scary bloggers that attacked Freeman.

Boo.

Glenn Reynolds reminds me of something I saw a few days ago, but forgot about. I just wanted to note that while I’m flattered that DNI Dennis Blair thinks that we in the blogosphere are powerful enough – or notorious enough – to blame for the way that Chas Freeman got steamrollered:

On the Charles – on the Chas Freeman appointment, I am happy to say that looking around this room, there was pretty responsible reporting on Chas, but apparently you guys aren’t bloggers, as – (laughter) – or you guys aren’t as powerful bloggers as some that I discovered when I made the announcement. I thought he was a good pick, I still think he’s a – still think he would have made a great National Intelligence Council Chairman, but it wasn’t to be, and so we’re – lesson learned, moving on.

…I’m afraid that it’s simply not true. It wasn’t us, and it wasn’t this “Israel lobby” that so exercises the pseudo-intellectual mind. One person torpedoed Charles Freeman’s nomination… and it was Charles Freeman himself. The guy was simply far too gone an apologist for too far broad a spectrum of unpleasant regimes to be tolerable, Right or Left.

That being said, I was exceptionally happy to help. I think that we can safely take at least some credit for helping.

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t think that you’ve really learned the lesson, DNI Blair. The lesson isn’t don’t be more proactive in getting your notorious apologists for unpleasant regimes through the nomination process: it’s supposed to be don’t appoint notorious apologists for unpleasant regimes in the first place. Just in case nobody’s mentioned.

Crossposted to RedState.

New York to tax top earners.

To sum up the New York Times article: New York Democrats in the Assembly have come to an agreement with New York Democrats in the Senate and the New York Democrat in the Governor’s office to raise state taxes on all incomes above $300,000/year. This is felt to be the best way to handle the looming 3.2 billion deficit in taxes from the previous projected budget – as opposed to, say, spending 3.2 billion less next year. Meanwhile, Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver went to some trouble to make certain that this tax plan did not include tax offsets for homeowners; the suggestion that this is for partisan political purposes is, of course, scurrilous. So, no doubt, is the observation that this tax bump is going to be squarely hitting small businesses at the same time that some of them are going to get hit on their federal tax burden as well.

And, of course, it is completely unfair to point out that New York’s economy is critically dependent on the collection of talent, capital, and organization that was already in poor financial health even before this new development. I am given to understand that the inhabitants of Wall Street tend Democratic in both contributions and elections.  It’ll be interesting to see how many times they can be kicked before there’s a general reassessment of that policy. Presumably it won’t happen right way, if only because it takes time for people to admit to themselves that they actually do have class interests, and they’re not voting them; but patience is a virtue.

As for the rest of New York, I ask what I asked the Washingtonians earlier: how’s one-party rule working out for you guys?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Amazing how things can *not* change over time, huh?

Having seen the Yes, Prime Minister clip found here I went looking for some more. This one here is biting (and still relevant), on a variety of levels:

…and it’s just as well that the embedding is disabled on this one, because the last line is simultaneously perfect and possibly distressing to those of delicate sensibilities.

Crossposted to RedState.

Phosphate smuggling in Washington!

It is the little things that grate.  Or get stuck to the plate of one’s ire.

Ace of Spades HQ has the details. What’s happening here is that Washington State Democrats have banned phosphates from dish detergents because it’s cheaper than upgrading their water treatment plants – excuse me, ‘better for the environment’ – in Spokane County as a test bed for a banning of the stuff statewide in 2010. Unfortunately, there’s a reason why they put phosphates in dish detergent: it softens ‘hard’ water, which the Pacific Northwest has an abundance of (it can be softened at the water treatment plants, but, again, the Democrats think that banning phosphates is cheaper). Hard water + no phosphates in dish detergents = dishwashers don’t work properly – so people are now getting into their cars and driving to Idaho, where people are happy to sell them all the phosphate-enriched dish detergent that they want. And anything else, while they’re there. They can go to other parts of the state, too – but that obviously will go away next year. How long it takes before Washington Democrats close the borders to phosphate smugglers is anybody’s guess; I’m picking 2011.

So, to recap: a good-intentioned policy position by the Washington Democratic party has instead degraded quality of life in its target area, increased the use of burned hydrocarbons in its target area, cost local retailers business in its target area, and is not being particularly successful in its stated objective. And yet there is no indication that this program is being recognized as a failure: so it’s still pretty much on-track to be adopted statewide anyway. And if you actually don’t like having food encrusted to your plate, you’re expected to pretty much suffer. And if you complain, you’ll probably have to listen to an inevitable – and smug – lecture from somebody who thinks that he knows how to organize your life better than you do.

Isn’t one-party rule grand, Washington State?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

The White House Lays An Easter Egg.

Conservatism 101: Or, How not to make children cry.

(Via Glenn Reynolds) I’m going to sum up The Enlightened Redneck’s post here about what happened to the White House Easter Egg Roll ticketing system this year (not because there’s anything wrong with his post: read it!): The new administration, having decided that the old system of having people engage in the time-honored tradition of physically camping out in line for tickets was somehow “unfair,” instead decided to make the registration process online. The process didn’t work properly – Shock! Surprise! – so people got tickets essentially via being lucky enough to be able to register before their session timed out.
Continue reading The White House Lays An Easter Egg.