ID-01: Cook has it as R+18; its current incumbent Walter Minnick won in a squeaker in 2008 thanks to a combination of Democratic headwinds and a poor candidate, and as neither condition is going to be replicated in 2010, he’s currently tacking hard to the center.  Minnick has thus already voted against the ‘stimulus’ and cap-and-trade, and he might even vote against health care rationing; impossible to guarantee, of course, given that he’s a Blue Dog and thus inherently untrustworthy to anybody.  The DCCC will still support him, also of course; taking money from progressives and giving it to equivocators is what they’re there for.

Against him is Vaughn Ward.  Iraq veteran, strong on fiscal conservatism, had a good second quarter – this was a pretty good pick/matchup by the NRCC, in my admittedly biased and amateur opinion.  He’s also something very interesting: a former McCain campaign staffer whom, as Soren Dayton notes here, has received campaign contributions from Todd Palin’s parents.  Somewhat suggestive, at the very least; and if Sarah Palin goes on the stump for candidates anywhere in 2010 it’ll be in places like ID-01.  So keep an eye out on this one.

And contribute too, of course.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

…that someone surveying the situation might be forgiven in thinking that it’s implicitly permitted: but no, we don’t actually want election fraud to happen. When it does – like it did in Pennsylvania – and we can catch them at it, we put the people who did it on trial.

And then, apparently, we have the ACLU wander in and pick the wrong side to defend (via No Sheeples Here).  They’ve decided that paying people to commit election fraud is constitutional:

PITTSBURGH — The community organizing and voter registration group Acorn filed a federal lawsuit here Wednesday claiming that a state statute that is being used to prosecute some of its former employees is unconstitutional.

[snip]

Acorn hopes the lawsuit will prevent criminal prosecution of its local leaders and office, which have been under investigation by Mr. Zappala’s office for eight months, said Witold Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is representing Acorn.

See also the American Spectator, which in another article notes the real estate links between the NYT and ACORN.  Just in case anyone was wondering why the sympathetic tone.

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It’s actually not that hard.

1. Figure out which professional agitation group typically runs faux-populist demonstrations in your area.
2. Subscribe to their email list and/or website.
3. DO NOT ENGAGE THEM IN CONVERSATION AND/OR DISCUSSION. You merely want to keep up with what they’re doing.
4. When they announce a protest, note the time and date.
5. Contact your local, actual conservative grassroots group.
6. On the day of the event, swamp them ten to one. (Via Instapundit)
7. Nicely.
8. Politely.
9. Smile a lot.
10. Bring cameras. Because they’re going to violate 7, 8, & 9 themselves, and you want that recorded.

These groups use strategic camera shots, a largely disinterested local press looking for local color, and a general lack of counter-protesters to come across as more powerful and effectual than they actually are. Right now they can get away with getting twenty people out to a local event and calling it “grassroots activism.”  Make it clear that they’re ridiculously outnumbered, and they’ll have to start spending more and more resources to accomplish their goals, such as they are.

Moe Lane

PS: None of this should stop people from having their own protests, of course. But counter-protests are much easier to put together… if you have the people to do it. We do. They don’t.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Via @AmandaCarpenter here (and a related thought here) and Hot Air: how the Washington Post chooses to symbolize the opposition (currently somewhere around 53%) to the proposed Democratic health care bill.

Senator Demint with a sniper rifle.

This was… vile… of them.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Via Ryan Witt of the St Louis Political Buzz Examiner, who ruefully notes that “if conservatives grab a hold of this story Carol Rosenberg may become their poster child for abuse by the “liberal media.”" Sounds like a plan:

In a letter to the paper’s editor, Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon accused Carol Rosenberg of “multiple incidents of abusive and degrading comments of an explicitly sexual nature.” Gordon, who deals primarily with the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, said in the letter that this was a “formal sexual harassment complaint” and asked the Herald for a “thorough investigation.”

[snip]

Gordon, 41, detailed a number of “vile and repulsive comments” he attributed to Rosenberg, stretching back to last summer. In the July 22 letter, Gordon alleges that:

– While watching Sept. 11, 2001, co-defendant Mustafa al-Hawsawi seated on a pillow in court last year, Rosenberg told Gordon: “Have you ever had a red hot poker shoved up your [butt]? Have you ever had a broomstick shoved up your [butt]? . . . How would you know how it feels if it never happened to you? Admit it, you liked it.”

It goes on. It’s the usual stuff from antiwar enthusiasts: attacks on sexual orientation, causal profanity, verbal attacks on appearance and habits, accusations of various fetishist behaviors, calling soldiers Nazis, nothing really out of the ordinary for that sort. On the off chance that the Miami Herald does something meaningful about this, she’s going to be a shoo-in for MSNBC’s nightly lineup.

What makes it interesting is that first, this is actually being brought up (Cmdr. Gordon’s retiring next year); and that second, he’s run this past the Department of Defense. That last bit may suggest that, even if nothing is formally done to Ms. Rosenberg, she’s probably going to be ending up not covering that particular area for much longer. Which is almost a shame; there’s something to be said for somebody who doesn’t hide the hate.

Moe Lane

PS: See also Instapundit and Media Bistro.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Pride of place probably goes to this interview of SIGTARP (and Obama ’08 supporter) Neil Barofsky by Jake Tapper (via Hot Air).  Barofsky engaged in a strong pushback to the White House / Treasury Department’s attempt to contradict his release of numbers indicating that the administration was planning to spend 23.7 trillion dollars to repair our financial system; the best quote from that was probably “Perhaps their criticism is that we dare to do math.”  Barofsky was also very firm about the fact that he has no intention of going back on the administration’s own stated ideals of transparency.  Listen to the whole thing, and contemplate that this all started with a 700 billion dollar bailout, with a review period in the middle.  Funny how this balloons, huh?  – And Barofsky doesn’t even think that there’s particular amounts of skullduggery going on.

Meanwhile, there’s the Walpin thing.  It turns out (via the Sundries Shack) that Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA), whose district includes Sacramento, called up the administration to get stimulus money for the city.  This was done at the end of March; and the reason that she intervened was because Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson was at the time under a dispute with IG Gerald Walpin about Johnson’s misappropriation of AmeriCorps funds for personal services.  A timeline is necessary at this point:

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(Via Instapundit) I was going to be tedious and heavy-handed about this story, but I’ve decided not to be. Somebody apparently threw this:

(Text: “Keep Eastside Black. Keep Eastside Strong.”)

…through a four-year-old’s window in East Austin, TX: and the cops have decided that it was not in fact a hate crime.

Which is of course nonsense.

Moe Lane

UPDATE: Erick had some more comments on this.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

(Via Politico & Hot Air Headlines) That’s the question that Patients United Now would like asked of every Representative over the August break:

I heartily endorse the notion, with a couple of suggestions:

• Bring a video camera. If you don’t have one, this onelooks cheap enough.
• Bring a friend to hold the video camera while you talk.
• Walk right up to your representative, identify yourself clearly, loudly, and politely, make sure that you say the magic words “…and I live in your district…,” and ask him or her whether they read the ‘health care bill’ in full before they voted on it.
• Remember: this question has a yes or no answer.
• You are not required to accept anything else than yes or no.
• You are not required to participate in an argument on the merits of health care.
• You are not required to tolerate their attempts to change the subject.
• You are not required to not make this politely, yet firmly clear to your legislator.
• This is why you need the second person, so that you can concentrate on the matter at hand and let him or her worry about camera angles and whatnot.

And, lastly:

• If they actually wimp out and recess before voting on the bill, change the question to “Will you read the ‘health care’ bill in full before you vote on it, etc, etc?”  Again, it’s a yes or no question – and for this one, if they give you an attitude you may smile sweetly and remind your legislator of the nortorious fact that nobody in the Democratic Party read the stimulus and/or cap and trade before they voted for it.

Hope this helps.  Have fun!

Moe Lane

PS: Do this all politely.  Let the Left scream and rant; you’re there to get your legislator on the record.  And if they refuse to do that, well, that’s worth uploading to a video sharing site right there.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Via Connie Hair of Human Events comes a report that the Democratic party has yet again decided that their Congressional majority allows them to interfere with Republican constituent communications. To summarize the situation: there is a bipartisan committee called the Franking Commission that effectively regulates what can and can’t go out officially. This oversight is not supposed to be partisan – Jazz Shaw, who is not a conservative, remembers that it wasn’t during the Iraqi liberation – but apparently the Democrats are sufficiently worried about their health care rationing program to ignore that little detail.

They have decided to not only block that existing chart – yes, this one – on the health care rationing bill; they’re now dictating to Rep John Carter of Mars Texas what language he may or may not use in his electronic town meetings.  Apparently the mere utterance of  of the phrase ‘government-run health care’ is enough to frighten Democrats; would that they were as alarmed at the reality.

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If you think that this is a bit long at 3:30, well, it has to be: they need a big hunk of time to let the names of all the ‘conservative’ Democrats currently unsure if they want to follow the President over the cliff of health care rationing. Via Hot Air:

Rep Price’s message was simple, as all good messages should be: this is the Democrats’ bill, and they can pass it any time that they want to. The truth is, of course, that many of the Democrats don’t actually want to – and never mind what Rahm Emanuel is sort-of-kind-of-not-really claiming about how it should clear the House next week. I will not pretend that their motives are pure, of course: most of them merely wish to keep their jobs and sinecures and junkets secure.  Plus, of course, they’re raking in the money now from affected industries… which is of course their privilege, but I do have to wonder whether they’ll be taking money from the DCCC, too.

Actually, I don’t wonder.  They will.  And the progressives will complain, fulminate, and ultimately sit still for it, because that’s what they do.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Forty-nine percent.

You ain’t so tough, Barack Obama.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Beating you is going to be tough for us to do. You have the executive branch of government – and nominally, the legislative as well. We have over a year to go before the 2010 elections, and things will improve for you and your party. So we will have to work for our wins.

But you’re not a machine. You’re a man.

And you ain’t so tough.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Via Reason Hit & Run (and Instapundit), a (rare) definitive statement from this administration:

“Legalization is not in the president’s vocabulary, and it’s not in mine,” he said.

Kerlikowske said he can understand why legislators are talking about taxing marijuana cultivation to help cash-strapped government agencies in California. But the federal government views marijuana as a harmful and addictive drug, he said.

“Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit,” Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS—Save Our Sierra—a multiagency effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern Fresno County.

I hate to be mean-spirited about this, but the man picked Joe “RAVE Act” Biden to be his running mate. Why would any person expect this administration to be anything but more of the same on the War on Some Drugs?

Moe Lane

PS: The stuff kills too many brain cells, has long-term effects that I don’t care for, and inhaling superheated gas is not particularly good for the lungs.  Plus it’s, you know, illegal; something which is actually a bit more important to me now than it was when I was 22, or even 25. So I pass on the stuff, myself.

But still.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Although even Rasmussen has to say “It’s California.”

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that Boxer attracts 45% of the statewide vote while Fiorina, her best-known possible Republican challenger, earns 41%. Seven percent (7%) say they’d vote for some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

In March, Boxer led Fiorina by nine, 47% to 38%.

Any incumbent who polls below 50% early in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable. However, a Democrat running in a heavily Democratic state like California is often able to overcome weak poll numbers.

Which is very true: but it’s also Barbara Boxer. This is not a very good period of time to be reflexively supporting more taxes, less energy, and the imposition of health care rationing – and, given some of the topline results to this survey (MoE is 4.5%, by the way), you have to wonder how ‘heavily Democratic’ it is these days. On first reading, the results read as being more anti-incumbent than anything else: Fiorina isn’t even formally in the race yet, although these numbers are certainly encouraging enough. Chuck Devore (who is in the race) is probably finding them encouraging, too; people in California just aren’t happy with the status quo right now – and contra Rasmussen, you shouldn’t ignore sub-50 ratings if you’re a politician who wants to keep her job.

I’d assume that Senator Boxer is taking that into consideration, except, well.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Some details from the story (covered here and here):

• Yes, in fact: there was trafficking in human organs involved.  At least one individual has been brought up on charges of attempting to sell a liver.
• The list of individuals and charges can be found here: we’re looking at conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and again, at least one charge in trafficking in human organs.  There are at least two Republicans on the list; but the Hudson County Democratic Party organizational chart is probably going to end up looking like there was a sudden outbreak of the bubonic plague.
• There is currently no indication that Governor Corzine was aware that numerous Democratic officials were allegedly involved in any conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and/or trafficking in human organs.  He apparently missed it completely.
• The FBI raided Community Affairs Commissioner (and NJ Cabinet member) Joseph Doria’s office, presumably in relation to their investigation of conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, and/or trafficking in human organs charges; Doria has resigned.
• Gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie (R) is also involved in this up to his eyeballs; in the sense that he was the one that started the investigation two years ago as a… I believe the term is, ‘crusading US Attorney.’
• An attempt to get a statement from Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Hudson County Democrat and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was unsuccessful.  There has been no press release and/or statement made at the time that this post was written.

And that’s how it stands at the moment.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

First off, here it is.

I know that it’s a over-complicated visual mess – but then, so is the health care rationing plan that it represents. Which is why the Democrats don’t want people to get too good a look at it:

Democrats are preventing Republican House Members from sending their constituents a mailing that is critical of the majority’s health care reform plan, blocking the mailing by alleging that it is inaccurate.

House Republicans are crying foul and claiming that the Democrats are using their majority to prevent GOP Members from communicating with their constituents.

The dispute centers on a chart created by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee to illustrate the organization of the Democratic health care plan.

At first glance, Brady’s chart resembles a board game: a colorful collection of shapes and images with a web of lines connecting them.

But a closer look at the image reveals a complicated menagerie of government offices and programs that Republicans say will be created if the leading Democratic health care plan becomes law.

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…and why it showed up in a press conference about the President’s proposed health care rationing program – OK, I can’t help you there.  But you can get the basic details of the Gates arrest here (via John Lott’s Website).

The scene – two black men on the porch of a stately home on a tree-lined Cambridge street in the middle of the day – triggered events that were at turns dramatic and bizarre, a confrontation between one of the nation’s foremost African-American scholars and a police sergeant responding to a call that someone was breaking into the house.

It ended when Gates, 58, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct in allegedly shouting at the officer; he was eventually taken away in handcuffs.

But the encounter is anything but over. Some of Gates’s outraged colleagues said the run-in proves that even in a liberal enclave like Harvard Square, even with someone of Gates’s accomplishments, a black man is a suspect before he is a resident.

Bolding mine, and there to highlight my sardonic observation:  what do you mean, “even?” Not to be rude about it, but there ain’t no racist like a Bostonian racist*.  Which is not necessarily a knock on the cop; it’s a knock on the neighbor who called the cops on Prof. Gates in the first place.

Moe Lane

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Well, it’s still pretty early in the morning.  Plenty of time for your compatriots to address your heresy properly:

Mother Knows Best

The president is “not familiar” with the bill. No one can explain how it will work yet, as Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told a contentious town meeting. There are various plans, and negotiations are still in the early stages.

But whatever it is, we should be for it.

Am I missing something?

Yes. He won, he knows best, so “shut up.”

Moe Lane

PS: No, actually, this is precisely who you voted for, Susan Estrich.  While you were all the while mocking the people who were telling you differently.  So if you’re annoyed, first be annoyed at yourself for your incredulity, then at the administration for taking advantage of it – and then go back at being annoyed at yourself, rather than bring my side into the summer of your discontent.  Enabling you is no more on our agenda than it is on the President’s.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Courtesy of Senate Republicans (and Jim Geraghty), Obama Straw Man Bingo!

I wouldn’t use this in conjunction with ethyl alcohol, mind you. Maybe if it wasn’t a weeknight…

(H/T: On Park Street) To sum up this Reason article on developing nations and climate change despair:

The Chinese and the Indians have no intention of giving anything but lip service to the quaint religious beliefs of Western climate change fanatics. They have no incentive to, and a powerful incentive not to: they are poor, and they wish to stop being poor, and there is no way to do that and not industrialize. If the aforementioned religious fanatics wish to try to force an economic Crusade upon the Chinese or the Indians in response, it is not entirely obvious that it will not backfire in the fanatics’ collective face.

The White House knows this, but it actually is not very good at making people do things that they don’t want to do, so don’t count on them to bail the country out of this mess.

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That’s House Minority Leader John Boehner’s response to CoS Rahm Emanuel’s rather… well, sad… statement that the White House has turned the economy around:

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