…but I like it anyway (Via Hot Air).

“They got great burgers, but no new jobs.” Come on: that’s funny.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Part 4 and Part 5 of his cap-and-trade review are up.  Part 4 goes in quickly about the differences between the cap-and-trade restrictions of Waxman-Markey and the Clean Air Act (very quickly: it’s the difference between carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide); Part 5 discusses the problems that W-M is going to give Texas specifically.  Still remaining: the Chinese connection and how people can get involved.

Energy policy is going to loom rather large, running up the 2010 elections; should KBH resign her seat to run for Governor, it would be helpful to have this guy in there.  Heck, I wouldn’t mind having him in there now.

Moe Lane

PS: He’ll be at the RS Gathering.

Full disclosure: I am in regular contact with the Michael Williams campaign, and I endorse him as a replacement to Senator Hutchison, should she resign her Senate seat.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

To steal from Glenn Reynolds: You know, they told me that if I voted for John McCain we’d end up with an embarrassingly unpopular Vice President who’d stumble over the simplest of tasks… and they were right!

Biden fails to draw crowd in Erie

Wattsburg, Pa. — Vice President Joe Biden visited a small town on the outskirts of Erie today to talk to rural folks about federal stimulus money that can be used to expand broadband access to the Internet for rural areas that typically have poor connections.

Apparently stimulus money and broadband are not all that interesting to the local folk here: Only around 100 or so people have showed up so far to hear Biden talk at noon at Seneca High School off Route 8 in Wattsburg.

The room looked so sparse that about 30 or so chairs were removed by volunteers to give the illusion of a full house.

See also Texans for Sarah Palin, which has a suggestion that’s as predictable as it is apropos. I’m told that the report is that Biden wasn’t really impressive to the people who bothered to show up, but… really, by what standard?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

*Never fails, does it?  Well, if even Jove nods…

Just on the off chance that somebody out there is still not on-board with the notion of taking back the House, please contemplate the table below:

Those are, generally speaking, the six most powerful committees in the House of Representatives - and if you’ll note carefully, you’ll see that the chairs of them that aren’t pushing seventy are the ones who are pushing eighty* (the average age of Representatives in the 111th Congress is 57).  You’ll also note that the least amount of time-in-Congress for any of them is twenty-eight years; in fact, all but two of them have been in Congress for longer than I’ve been alive, and I’ll be forty next year.  This is not really unexpected (except, of course, by people silly enough to believe that Democratic control of Congress meant a “fresh start,” or some other nonsense): seniority counts for a lot in determining committee assignments.  So what?

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Didn’t mention me by name, didn’t get my actual status on RedState quite right,* didn’t link to the original piece (or, indeed, to the the site itself), and for all I know it’s website-only** - but my wife seems to think that getting quoted still counts.  Even if it was sort of out of context.

Yeah, I know: overly fussy of me.  Particularly since a couple of people are probably grinding their teeth right now over the Old Grey Lady referring to RedState as ‘popular.’

Moe Lane

*They called me a ‘commentator’ instead of a ’site moderator’ - or, as it says on my business cards, ‘Chief Protocol Officer.’  Although, honestly?  The correct title would probably be more like this.

**It’s rude to go through a paper at the store and see if an article made the print section.  As for buying a New York Times… well, what would I do with one, once I had it?  I don’t own a canary.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Background: Hot Air (Allahpundit), Hot Air (Ed Morrissey), The Weekly Standard, ConsiderThisNews (Pat Hynes), The Politico

Since everybody else is piling on, let me add my own comment to the fray.  If you were one of the people who participated in that Vanity Fair hit piece, and we find out your name, you will be a net drag on any national campaign for the rest of your professional career.  Not because you helped the Left go after Governor Palin, but because you are an untrustworthy sneak who is dedicated to propping up the elitist system in DC, not fixing it.   Any candidate that hires you will have to overcome the base’s natural reluctance to work with a campaign that would hire someone like you.  This can be done; but it’s much easier to hire people with your skill set and a name for basic party loyalty.

If you are a McCain staffer who did not talk to VF, I suggest that you find some way to demonstrate that you aren’t one of the people in the first paragraph.  Because until we know who talked, the default assumption is going to be that you may have talked.  This will not wreck your career, but it will blight it if the base has anything to say about it.  On the bright side, a simple and declarative denial will do; of course, if your denial is a lie and we catch you at it, brush up on your typing skills.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

I normally try to adopt a back-away-slowly reaction to Andrew Sullivan - I’m not a trained psychological professional, but frankly that man’s a crazy as a outhouse rat these days - but R.S. McCain, in the process of idly smacking around Sullivan for the latest exercise in conspiracy thinking (honestly, if the Weekly World News won’t go with it*, why is the Atlantic doing so?), notes something:

The “how was your day” question is kind of weird for a blogger to explain…

Ain’t that the truth. I suspect that my wife approaches that question the same way that a bomb squad approaches a suspicious package. Alas, I always ask her how her day went, so she’s stuck.

Moe Lane

*Yes, that is a slur on the Weekly World News. I apologize for it.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

So, let’s review.

• Via Little Miss Attila, we see that getting cap-and-trade passed in the Senate is seen as being… problematical.
• Via Instapundit, we see that Al Franken is now officially the junior Senator from Minnesota. That, of course, makes sixty.
• Via Hot Air, we see that the netroots are threatening to go on Crusade against the Democratic party if the Democrats don’t start using their clear mandate to do everything that the progressives want them to do.
• Via Ace of Spades HQ, we see that Gallup is reporting that the public’s perception of the Democratic party have just flipped, with a plurality of the population now thinking that the party is too liberal (for the first time since 1996).
• Via Rasmussen, we see that a plurality of the population doesn’t like this bill (41%) and doesn’t think that it’ll help the economy (42%).  That’s a lot of Earth traitors.
• And, oh, yes: the GOP flipped the generic Congressional ballot again - although that last will probably bounce back and forth for a while.

Yeah. This is going to be an interesting July.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

[UPDATE]: Coleman has conceded.  And while I rarely agree with the Angry Left on anything, I do agree on this: Reid has no more excuses.

For the Minnesota Supreme Court decision declaring Al Franken the winner, that is.

Real fast: the ABC News report that was sent out is actually from January; apparently the Governor was not specifically ordered to issue the certificate (don’t ask me why); Gov. Pawlenty made one of those statements:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty had indicated as late as Monday that he was willing to certify Mr. Franken as the winner once the state’s highest court decided the recount and Mr. Coleman’s battle. On CNN on Sunday, Mr. Pawlenty said: “I’m prepared to sign it as soon as they give the green light.”

Asked what he would do if Mr. Coleman decided to appeal to the federal courts, as had been mentioned before this ruling, Mr. Pawlenty added: “A federal court could stay or put a limit on or stop the effect of the state court ruling. If they chose, if they do that, I would certainly follow their direction. But if that doesn’t happen promptly or drags out for any period of time, then we need to move ahead with signing this, particularly if I’m ordered to do that by the state court.”

Some legal experts already are pointing out that the Minnesota Supreme Court did not issue a directive ordering Governor Pawlenty to sign the certificate. And there is, according to legal experts, a rehearing period of 10 days, under the Minnesota judges’ ruling.

And so we wait to see what Norm Coleman does next. Hotline says it’ll be to concede: either way, it’ll be at 4 PM.

Let’s start with the NRCC’s incentive program for last-minute 2Q donations that they announced yesterday:

Every dollar you give through tomorrow, June 30th, will be quadrupled. So if you give $5, we’ll make it $20. If you can afford $25, we’ll make it $100.

That’s four times the impact of a normal contribution, and it will be put to immediate use replacing Pelosi’s puppets in Congress with principled, conservative Republicans.

At this point, somebody has reflexively started a very long comment on why this offer should be ignored. While he’s writing it, let me explain why you shouldn’t.

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Seeing this proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution from Big Hollywood (H/T: Instapundit):

No law, bill, resolution or any act of Congress shall exceed 2000 words, including all footnotes, amendments and signatures. Congress shall not vote on any item longer than that. Each item requiring a vote shall be read aloud in its entirety in session to a majority of members. Those not in attendance may not vote on the item.

…I’m reminded of this bit from Robert Heinlein’s Expanded Universe. In one didactic bit, he has a Senator propose something called a ‘Semantic Amendment:’

“It permits a citizen to challenge the Constitutionality of any law or regulation, Federal or any lesser authority, on the grounds that it is ambivalent, equivocal, or cannot be understood by a person of average intelligence. Paragraph two defines ‘average intelligence.’ Paragraph three defines and limits the tests that may be used to test the challenged law. The fourth paragraph excludes law students, law school graduates, lawyers, judges, and uncertified j.p.’s from being test subjects.”

Fascinating to contemplate, no? Also, exceptionally unlikely to happen any time soon. But that’s not precisely the point. The point is that when people start talking about changing the Constitution like this, what they’re really saying is “I’m getting sick and tired of the idiots running things right now.”

Let those in power with eyes to see not see this, and not understand - for they are not of my political party.

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t know: how many people like Bob Gale are out there? Guess we’ll just find out, huh?

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Palate cleanser, as Allahpundit likes to say.

It’s bad when the White House press pool can’t keep a straight face.

Anyway, you’ll need a palate cleanser in order to properly appreciate this recipe for carpetbag steak (via @EdDriscoll). I don’t even really like oysters, and this sounds tasty.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

(Via Sister Toldjah) We should never have let Paul Krugman fester behind that TimesSelect subscriber wall. It broke something inside of him:

But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.

Now, I’m not one who would normally get into a man’s religious beliefs, but any faith that requires you to anathematize what was at last count 40% of the population* as ‘traitors to the planet’ seems to be a very silly faith for a pundit to have, or at least espouse openly. For extra irony? I’ll bet you that if and when Krugman gets muttering drunk, one of his favorite topics of slurred discussion is probably a tirade on the subject of the perfidy of fundamentalist Christians.

Moe Lane

PS: Sister Toldjah has more at the link on the topics on the peculiarities of Krugman’s faith, the sudden permissibility of defining dissent as treason, and this administration’s own War on Science.  No reason to reproduce her work.

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(Via AoSHQ) It has been declared a holiday, and for good reason. They’re getting their country… well, ‘back’ is the wrong word; under the Baathists it was never really ‘theirs’ to begin with. But they do take responsibility for their cities and towns now.

Iraqis Celebrate Day of National Sovereignty Marking US Troop Pullback

Iraqis are staging a national celebration to mark the impending June 30th withdrawal of U.S. troops from most cities, towns and villages. Celebrations in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, include music, dance and poetry.

I think that this is a nicely iconic image:

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Like RS’s Erick Erickson and TNR’s Ironman, I instinctively shy from a boycott of the NRCC because they had eight members out of one hundred and seventy eight who flunked a test vote.  Some of the names on that list hurt to see, and a couple are exercises in teeth-grinding; but perfect is the enemy of the good, and Congressional Republicans have done a good job in using our lopsidedly minority status to the best effect possible.  Nobody’s pretending that this was passed with bipartisan support.  Nobody’s even trying.  That’s better news for next year’s elections than what I was frankly expecting, back in December 2008.

That being said: this was a test vote, and these eight represent eight ‘Blue Dogs’ that could safely vote No on this bill and keep pretending to their constituents that they believe in fiscal responsibility, and there needs to be some sort of response to that.

I have a modest suggestion along those lines, and his name is Anh “Joseph” Cao (LA-02).

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(Background here.)

They had a court order.  Fausta updated:

1:50PM
Indeed, Honduras’ La Prensa states that (My translation: If you use this, please credit me and link to this post)

An official statement of the Supreme Court of Justice explained that the Armed Forces acted under lawful grounds when detaining the President of the Republic, and by decommissioning the materials to be used on the illegal poll which aimed to bring forth Executive Power against a judicial order.Other sources verified that the president of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, will assume the presidency of the republic in a few hours.
…
Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was detained this morning by the military in compliance with an order of the courts of law.

Meanwhile, the foreign policy experts over at State and the White House* have gone into, bluntly, full Ugly American mode: they’re currently declining to recognize the right of the Hondurans to remove their own head of state on constitutional grounds. Apparently, when it’s a choice between a chief executive on the one hand and said chief executive’s country’s judiciary, legislature, military, and own political party on the other… well, it all apparently depends on what Hugo Chavez thinks.

Let’s just hope that they don’t ask Chavez what he thinks about the Jews.

Moe Lane

PS: Let me expand on that just a little.  I don’t think that this administration is slavishly following Chavez’s lead: I think that they care so little about South American affairs that accommodating their stance to that of a darling of the radical Left seems to them to be a no-brainer.  If the White House is worried about getting the answer to this wrong, it’s not immediately obvious.

*H/T: Gateway Pundit, Hot Air.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

AoSHQ linked to this piece mostly to highlight the Warren Buffet quote on cap and trade:

“it’s a huge tax and there’s no sense calling it anything else. I mean, it is a tax. So it — and it’s a fairly regressive tax.”

- Real quickly, Mr. Buffet: how did you vote in the last election, again? -

…but I wanted to actually highlight the following exchange between George Stephanopoulos and Obama crony David Axelrod. In the interests of fair use, I am going to executive summary this one; feel free to compare it against the original. I think that I’ve captured the sense accurately, at least.

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Via Fausta’s Blog:

Soldiers arrest Honduran president: AP+

MECIXO CITY, June 28 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Soldiers on Sunday arrested the Honduran president and took him to an air force base just before voting was to begin on a disputed constitutional election, according to the Associated Press.

President Manuel Zelaya’s private secretary told the AP that Zelaya was arrested and brought to a base on the outskirts of the capital, Tegucigalpa.

[snip]

Zelaya had pledged to go forward with a referendum on constitutional reform despite the opposition of the Supreme Court, the military, Congress and members of his own party.

Fausta has background here: if you don’t have time to read it, note that proto-dictator Hugo Chavez (and whoever’s channeling Fidel Castro this week) is spitting nails on this. Given that, as the Wall Street Journal notes, this entire thing got started over President Zelaya’s attempt to set up a referendum* in opposition to pretty much the opposition of the rest of the Honduran government, civilian and military… well.  A man is known by his friends, and I wish I knew what the equivalent Spanish idiom is.

Moe Lane

*One that would allow him to run for re-election.  The Honduras Constitution forbids that; given of what I know of South American history, this isn’t exactly surprising.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

As in, trying to incite the populace against a long-established demon figure.

Iran arrests UK embassy staff

The British government is “deeply concerned” at the arrest and detention of British Embassy employees in Tehran, the foreign secretary said today.

David Miliband said Britain had protested to the Iranian authorities about the arrests made on Saturday.

He described the detentions as “harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable”. He added: “We want to see (them) released unharmed.”

Iranian media reported today that authorities had detained eight employees of the British Embassy in Tehran for an alleged role in postelection protests, signaling a hardening of Iran’s stance toward the west.

No, it’s not always about us.

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I’d say send one to your Representative, too - but that ship has sailed.

(Scrappleface, via Vodkapundit)

Besides, either you’re in a GOP district, which means (with eight unfortunate exceptions) your legislator is already clued in - or you’re in a Democratic one, which means that you were planning to vote against the person anyhow.

Right?

Open thread.

Moe Lane

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