Let’s set the (somewhat stylized) scenario, here: The Senate on January 5, 2011 – as per the apparent wishes of Senators Tom Udall of New Mexico and Tom Harkin of Iowa, neither of whom are up for reelection in 2012 – votes to change the rules so that a simple majority may short-circuit the filibuster. Cheers and applause from the progressives; silence from the Republicans. | Read More »
Read some of the papers these days and it’s like nobody’s ever – in the history of the world – had a legislature change hands from one political party to the other. Because the Democrats are certainly not acting like they get the magnitude of what happened to them: You’ve got the New York Times commiserating with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. The poor woman has to scramble | Read More »
Almost as much as Harry Reid hates working for a living, apparently: the word is out that he’s going to take all that legislation that the Democrats didn’t bother working on when they had a mere 59/41 Senate majority and make Congress work on it over Christmas break… when the Democrats will have a 58/42 majority. He is also blaming this on the Republican party, | Read More »
It was my first intention to cheerfully ignore the quote-unquote ‘No Labels’ movement, given that it is yet another iteration of what is a peculiarly American phenomenon. You see, you get these rich liberals who decide that since the political system is clearly controlled by a shadowy cabal of elites, surely they’d be candidates for membership as the Secret Masters of the Democratic party; then, | Read More »
The Hill reports that the following House freshmen will be given slots on the following committees: Appropriations: Alan Nunnelee, Steve Womack, Kevin Yoder, & Tom Graves on Appropriations. Energy: Cory Gardner, Morgan Griffith, Adam Kinzinger, David McKinley, Mike Pompeo, and Charlie Bass. Financial Services: Quico Canseco, Bob Dold, Sean Duffy, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Bill Huizenga, Robert Hurt, Steve Stivers, Steve Pearce, and Michael Fitzpatrick. | Read More »
(Via Hot Air Headlines) House Democrats are not handling their recent spanking well. They’re especially distraught over losing control of the House in such an insanely short time: “We only had it for four years,” one senior Democrat lamented. “It took so long to get it back, and now it is all gone.” Well, that’s what happens when politicians run as moderates and rule as | Read More »
There are two cases in Florida and Virginia expected to be decided this week over the constitutionality of Obamacare. The underlying issue is whether the US Constitution gives Congress the right to force its citizens to engage in commerce (specifically, whether Congress can mandate individuals to buy health insurance). Which, the last time I checked, it does not; and while I understand that Obamacare’s remaining | Read More »
There is a good deal of evidence suggesting it – Michael Steele is not canvassing for support, has no team in place to help him get re-elected RNC chair, and will have a conference call on Monday that many think will have his announcement that he won’t seek re-election – but at best it’s a suggestion, not a fact. Given the fiscal difficulties that the | Read More »
Yes. The Bill Watterson. This is from a collection of his rarer cartoons (via GeekPress). I suspect that he was upset about the message found in this particular cartoon of Reagan, Ted Kennedy, and Carter… …but the creator of Calvin & Hobbes can be forgiven much. Besides, Bill hit this one right on the head… Open thread. Moe Lane (crosspost) PS: We all miss you, | Read More »
I’ll be honest: I hesitated to put up this link to what claims to be a Wikileaked cable regarding issues with the US/UK special relationship during the previous administration. I truly did. I have long made it clear that I take our security classification system likely, and I subscribe wholeheartedly to the notion that some things are and should be on a need-to-know basis. In | Read More »
(Via Instapundit) One presumes, at least, based on the graffiti (generally Communist; I’d also say ‘vile and ignorant,’ but that would be redundant), the careful over-dramatic poses (with obligatory bandannas), and of course the crowd of screaming blackshirt anarchists smashing the window of Prince Charles’ limo while screaming “Tory scum*.” The ostensible reason for the rioting was the recent hiking of tuition rates in England, | Read More »
Allahpundit calls House Democrats “a gang of cheap losers” for folding like this, and it’s hard to disagree: apparently, all that rhetoric about tax cuts for the rich can easily be trumped with an additional ethanol subsidy. To which I say, drink deep: because in a world where Al Cubslayer Gore is talking about ending that kind of pork, the odds that it’s going to | Read More »
The method is rather… elegant, in a certain sort of way: obnoxious, but elegant. What the Democrats are plotting to do is to finish passing legislation (that would appear in the continuing spending resolution that’s substituting for an actual budget) that would allow the executive branch of the government (in the guise of the Secretary of the Interior) to unilaterally take into trust land offered | Read More »
I know that this would be a title with a lot of contenders, but let’s look at the evidence. It’s not because he’s for a death tax: that’s just ordinary tone-deafness, coupled with the standard Democratic politician’s assumption that it was all really their money all along, and they were just letting individual citizens hold on to it for a while. It’s not even that | Read More »
Via Instapundit, the Politico is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to add language permitting online gambling to the tax compromise negotiated between the GOP and the President. This is a reversal for Reid, who was opposed to online gambling, right up to the point where certain casinos (who are now in favor of the legislation) dumped at least 500K into Reid’s | Read More »
‘JSOC’ being short for the ‘Joint Special Operations Command,’ which is known to normal people as a group that coordinates communications and operations among various American Special Forces organizations*. The alleged would-be spy Bryan Martin allegedly traded secret documents to an FBI operative in exchange for roughly $3,500; there’s no indication as of yet that he was working with anyone else, but between this and | Read More »
It looked that way earlier in the day, and it’s now confirmed. The ‘deal’ will be that the White House ‘delays’ raising taxes for two more years in ‘exchange’ for getting a thirteen-month extension on unemployment benefits*. That last is problematical, but given the Democrats’ moral weakness thus far the GOP might still be able to keep pushing a little and get offsets in federal | Read More »
The now-criminal organization known as Wikileaks is threatening the cyber-equivalent of nuclear blackmail: shut it down, its backers say, and it will release the decryption key to a supposedly-devastating set of encrypted files that have been made available for download since July. Which means that: everybody who has already downloaded that document, and now has it on your hard drive? Congratulations! You’ve just been signed | Read More »
The wind ‘industry’ is apparently looking for more federal aid – actually, no, there’s nothing apparent about it. They want more federal aid, they want it permanently – and they want it specifically allocated to them, and not as part of a nebulous ‘alternate energy’ package. Otherwise, they’re afraid that they’ll go out of business. For the record: if your business plan requires – not | Read More »
Which is not bad for a political prognosticator, actually. Charlie Cook is arguing in his latest column that the President must be hoping that one or more of the following things happen: Unemployment goes down; We not lose the war in Afghanistan; and/or THAT WOMAN gets the Presidential nomination. …if the President wants to be reelected. First off: amazing what two years of institutionalized blithering | Read More »
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