Some un-asked for practical advice for Tea Party folks.

Since I temporarily have some people’s attention:

  • If you are a website design-type person: now would be an excellent time to either promote the site that you have designed to act as a national clearinghouse for upcoming Tea Parties, or to actually sit down and design one.  I suggest something lean, stripped-down, has an easy-to-remember link, and designed to let people easily post their own locations and contact information.
  • If you are a deep-pockets conservative/Republican looking to fund something: here you go.  Won’t cost you much to fund the above suggestion, and it’d be frankly a help.  Alternatively, you could bankroll a local Tea Party group; that’s even cheaper at this stage (donuts, coffee, and megaphones).
  • If you are a non-nasty candidate for any office, or a staffer for same, or a campaign manager for same: get yourself and your candidate to the next one of these.  Bring a megaphone.  Have your candidate tell the crowd that he/she is just as tired of this as they are.  (This advice also works for people already in office.)
  • If you are just a regular person: first, I apologize for the ‘just;’ elitist of me, and we’ve had quite enough of that lately.  Second, go find a local Tea Party group.  If you happen to know how to run an office, organize a meeting, or coordinate things over the phone, please find a local Tea Party group now.

I think that this should cover it – oh, yes, almost forgot: megaphones. Twenty bucks. Good for when you forget the bullhorns.

Moe Lane

Crossposted at RedState.

Thought of the Yesterday.

From RS McCain:

Conservatives are now a guerrilla resistance. Harassing the enemy — staging raids and ambushes that prevent him from enjoying his conquest at leisure — is basic to guerrilla resistance. If we are doomed to destruction, as least let it be said that we died fighting. But those who never fight, never win.

In a word: “Wolverines!”

Yup. Just… yup. And allow me to outgeek Mr. McCain, here: I don’t know about him, but I aim to misbehave.

Crossposted at RedState.

This week’s book: How Much is a Million?

As you can see, I have swapped out How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion for a new book:

…which is because of an idea that Pat Cleary had: to wit, that since our government obviously doesn’t have any concept of what a million really means we might as well educate them. First linked to here: again Congressional addresses here; Senatorial ones here; and, of course, the President lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20500.

The truly amusing thing about the Obama vetting process.

It is not that, as Andrew Bolt notes, that the process has been so flawed to date that it’s fair to use the phrase “spivs and chiselers” without exaggerating. Very Commonwealth-y, but not exaggerating.

It is not that, as Gawker’s Owen Thomas notes, that it’s now come out that new chief vetter Gregory Craig’s wife herself apparently hasn’t been paying her business taxes, to the point where there’s now allegedly an investigation going on about that.

(Both links H/T Glenn Reynolds)

It is not even that the first reaction that everybody had – including you! Admit it – to hearing that Gov. Sebelius got the nod for HHS Secretary was “Hm. I wonder whether she’s paid her taxes.”

Nope. The funny part is that this process isn’t going to stop for months. Continue reading The truly amusing thing about the Obama vetting process.

Your dose of cruel lawyer humor for the day.

Over at Word Around the Net there’s some pretty good, true (supposedly) anecdotes from a book called Disorder in the Court: Great Fractured Moments in Courtroom History. Here’s one, just to whet your appetite:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

As I said: cruel.

Crossposted at RedState.

Christian Brose: Obama should have thanked Bush for the surge.

Stop bitterly laughing like that.  You’ll scare the kids.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) This is in the context of mentioning President Obama’s recent military speech, and in the context of discussing the fairly obvious – to people with functioning neural tissue, at least – points that the President is coasting on Bush’s successful surge strategy; and that our failure to actually have an ambassador to Iraq at the moment is, put simply, dumb. With that out of the way, Brose went on to ask the President to at least note the victories of the previous administration. Brose did not also ask for a magical elixir that would cure cancer, warts, and the galloping staggers, although I’m not sure why. He didn’t stand that much less of chance of getting it (bolding mine):
Continue reading Christian Brose: Obama should have thanked Bush for the surge.

Peter Jackson’s WETA Workshop makes a mermaid.

(Via Fark) Apparently, it takes a little bit more than the usual make-work projects to keep the people of WETA on their game, so they decided to go and make a functional prosthetic mermaid’s tail for a double amputee.

Just to keep their hand in, you understand.  After all, it’s going to be two years before The Hobbit comes out.

Moe Lane

PS: Second half of the video here, but language warning.  They picked a fairly inappropriate song to use for it, in my opinion.

The progressive movement’s abandonment of human rights, Part 45.

Number made up, but trust me: I could find forty-four more examples, ya, you betcha.

Here’s the thing: I’ve met Michael Barone. I know that he’s smart. Frighteningly so, in fact. And I know that he pays attention to details, in ways that usually startle the living life out of people who aren’t used to it. In other words, this is an aware guy that we’re talking about.

So why the surprise, here?

All of which brings to mind the report of a conservative blogger who watched George W. Bush’s 2005 inaugural speech with a group of liberals. Every time Bush called for spreading freedom and democracy around the world, the crowd guffawed and groaned and jeered. For them, evidently, Bush was a figure of fun, and his calls for democracy and human rights laughable. The same people who decried his supposed authoritarian rule at home had nothing but contempt for his call for freedom and democracy abroad.

Beneath this stated contempt is, I think, something in the nature of secret guilt. Or rather, anger at the notion that Bush had stolen the issues of human rights and democracy from the liberals.

The desire to oppose the Iraq war root and branch, to denounce every aspect of it, imposed a duty to dismiss as laughable Bush’s stated objective — set out eloquently before the decision to take military action as well as after it — of advancing democracy in the Middle East. A duty to side with those, like the National Intelligence Council nominee, who have long held that governance in the style of Saudi Arabia or Syria is the best that can be hoped for in that region, and the best for all concerned. A duty to dismiss with contempt, or simply to ignore, the rather remarkable strides of the Iraqis themselves made after enduring decades of brutal tyranny.

Continue reading The progressive movement’s abandonment of human rights, Part 45.

Muckmaker Shauna Daly returning to DNC.

You may have remembered that Ms. Daly had been placed by the Obama White House last month in its counsel office, despite the fact that she has no actual legal credentials. It was widely assumed – justifiably, in my opinion – that this was due to the fact that she’s quite the political sheet-sniffer, which was apparently what the administration thought that it needed right now.

Apparently the DNC needs her more:
Continue reading Muckmaker Shauna Daly returning to DNC.