Turns out that even after you go through the regular bureaucratic hell that is the average DMV, some people will still reflexively smile for the camera*.

Can’t have that!

Via Reason Hit & Run. I’d say more, except that I took a header on some water on the floor about a half hour ago, and the left side of my body hurts like nobody’s business**. Nothing broken, but it’s going to be a fun bruise or three tomorrow.

Moe Lane

*(Checking) Goodness gracious, I’m one of them!

**This footnote removed from RedState on the grounds of crass commercialism and blatant attempts to milk sympathy. In other words, you can find it on Moe Lane.

You know, I had this really interesting post in the back of my head for the inevitable screamfest that would have been directed at us by name over this Tiller guy’s murder*… except that when I actually saw the details of the one that eventually bubbled up, it all got pushed aside by one thought: 

Jeebus, people.  You’ve been doing this sort of thing forever.  Surely at this stage of the game you don’t need to plagiarize your battle plan from Bill Freaking O’Reilly.

I blame Firefox.  If only because they never get blamed for anything, which is actually kind of odd, when you think about it.

Open thread.

Moe Lane

*Of course there was going to be one.  These people can’t quit us.

Amazing what a little fiscal intransigence can do:

The Illinois House overwhelmingly rejected a temporary income tax increase Sunday, moving the state closer to massive spending cuts that critics called a “doomsday” budget.

The House’s Democratic leaders didn’t even try to pass a larger, permanent increase that was approved by the state Senate a day earlier. Lawmakers said there was little support for that plan during private Democratic discussions.

Instead, the House considered a measure that would have bumped the state’s 3 percent personal tax rate to 4.5 percent for two years. House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said it would have produced about $4.5 billion for a state government drowning in red ink.

The Senate version is described here: essentially, while the Illinois Senate apparently was willing to ignore Republican objections (the truly strange term system that the Illinois state Senate has may have something to do with that), the Illinois House was apparently a little less happy with ending up ratifying significant tax hikes, particularly since the GOP was making no secret about the fact that it wasn’t involved in the process of making this budget in the first place. At least, that’s about the only reason that I can see for having a legislature that’s nearly 2-to-1 Democrat/GOP go so thoroughly the other way on this vote.  At any rate, the Illinois Republicans are indicating that they’re willing to participate in the future budget negotiations.  Assuming that the Democrats are willing to let them, that is.

No rush.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Senator Lindsey Graham goes there:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told “FOX News Sunday” he wasn’t buying President Obama’s attempt to walk back his Supreme Court nominee’s controversial statement from 2001. Obama said Friday that given the chance Sotomayor would have “restated” that comment, and that she was merely trying to express how her experiences give her perspective on others’ hardships.

“She didn’t say that at all,” Graham countered Sunday, suggesting Sotomayor’s statement raises questions about her objectivity.

“What she said is that based on her life experiences is that she thought a Latina woman, somebody with her background, would be a better judge than a guy like me — a white guy from South Carolina,” Graham said. “It is troubling, and it’s inappropriate and I hope she’ll apologize.”

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From earlier this week, in response to Ted Olson’s surprise move to attempt to resolve federal marriage policy via judicial fiat (via the Corner):

Gay groups say federal marriage suit premature

SAN FRANCISCO – A coalition of gay-rights groups said Wednesday that a federal same-sex marriage lawsuit brought by two high-profile lawyers is premature and they’d rather work through state legislatures and voters to win wedding rights.

Now they decide this. Full disclosure: I support the extension of marriage benefits to same-sex couples, via the legislative process.

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Going through the news, here are some specific contributions to what CBS calls a “global effort” to clamp down on piracy in Somalia:

• India: “An Indian warship patrolling the seas near the lawless African country responded to a distress call Thursday from the Liberian-registered merchant vessel MV Maud, which said eight armed people on a skiff were approaching it at high speed, the navy said. The ship and a helicopter with marine commandos made their way toward the ship, where they saw two people attempting to board it, the navy said in a statement.”
• Australia: “An Australian warship will join international efforts to combat pirates operating from Somalia, the government said in Friday. Australia will send a frigate and maritime patrol aircraft currently on Persian Gulf security duties to join anti-piracy operations in and near the Gulf of Aden, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said in a statement.”
• Canada: “Canadian Forces boarding parties detained and searched two suspected pirate skiffs about 90 kilometres off the coast of Yemen, uncovering a large cache of automatic weapons, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers with warheads. Cmdr. Craig Baines, the captain of the Winnipeg, said the weapons seizures marked a very successful day for the Canadian frigate, which has been a constant thorn in the side of the Somali pirates that hunt merchant vessels in this, one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors.”
• The United States of America: We’re making a movie.

Moe Lane

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

I’m sorry to have to tell you folks at The Gawker this, but it’s over.  You’ve been tagged by the guy from the cow college as Outside the Pale, and you’re not coming back from that.

It’s like this: you were fine with this post, for a given value of fine: you took precisely the line that was expected of you with the Mancow narrative.  Right-wing shock-jock gets waterboarded, now thinks it’s torture, yadda yadda and the Online Left cheers while it reaches for the tis… well, I’ll be polite.  If you had left it there, nothing further would have gone on.  But then you made the mistake of actually deciding that the evidence that this was a publicity stunt was actually worth publicizing.  So you got yelled at for it, a little; but you just kept pushing. So now you got yelled at, for real – and it doesn’t matter in the slightest that it’s by a rampaging buffoon who believes that Cheney had secret death squads.  Or that you actually agree with him that waterboarding really is torture.  Or anything else, at this point.

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That last part?  Deservedly so.  I first heard of this story yesterday, via Tapper.  While the subject matter itself is easily the most appalling part, I would like to note for the record (like Glenn Reynolds) that it’s not exactly comforting to know that we have historical illiterates running our newspapers.

Personally, I hope that the current President follows in the steps of J.Q. Adams, Van Buren, Hayes, and Taft.

Moe Lane

PS: Welcome to our world.  It was a fun eight years, let me tell you.  Real knee-slapping, in that special ‘root canal without anesthetic’ sort of way.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

So.  Back in February the President went to Elkhart, Indiana and made a speech where, as Deceiver.com helpfully reminds us, he included this part:

You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime. There’s got to be some accountability and some responsibility, and that’s something that I intend to impose as president of the United States.

Earlier this week, the President took a trip to Las Vegas on the taxpayers’ dime.  His privilege.  He went there to raise money for the wildly unpopular Senator Harry Reid.  Likewise, his privilege. He did this even though the current Governor is quite upset at the President for helping to lose his state about 131 million in revenue so far this year – and upset from afar, because the President didn’t meet with either him or the (Democratic) mayor of Las Vegas.  Once again, the President’s privilege – hey, do you know the etymology of the word ‘privilege?’

It’s Latin: it means ‘private law.’

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams is running to replace Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson in anticipation of her vacating her Senate seat to run for Governor, and he’s currently attempting to raise $10,000 by May 31st. Here’s some footage from him from the April 15th Tea Party:

If you like this, or his stance on current issues, feel free to donate.

Full disclosure: I am in contact with the Williams campaign.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Via Hot Air Headlines:

Don’t Freak, The White Powder Is Aspirin Crystals

Oh, yes, this is going to be an inspired ad campaign.

If you get an envelope in the mail containing white powder, chances are, it’s nothing to freak out about.

According to local officials, the Bayer Aspirin Company will be deploying a nationwide mass mailing ad campaign that seems a little “misguided.”

Between May 20 and May 29, the Aspirin Company will be sending out 178,000 envelopes. Of those envelopes, 33,561 will contain a sample of Bayer Aspirin Crystals, which is a white powder.

To quote the Vice President:

Couldn’t have said it better, myself.

Open thread.

Moe Lane

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It is, after all, not a Republican administration.

Administration blocks helicopters for Israel due to civilian casualties in Gaza

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has blocked Israel’s request for advanced U.S.-origin attack helicopters.

Government sources said the administration has held up Israel’s request for the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. The sources said the request was undergoing an interagency review to determine whether additional Longbow helicopters would threaten Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Via AoSHQ, via The Hasmonean, who is apparently keeping track.

If this pleases you, by the way, consider that the administration doesn’t have the guts to do any of this openly.  Saying one thing in public and doing another in private is a behavior pattern that most of us were supposed to discard by the time we graduated high school; I grant that this is honored more in the breach than the observance, but we expect more from our leaders.  If the White House wants to disarm Israel, it should do it in public and take the heat…

Yes, I’m a blind, mad optimist. Almost dangerously so, in fact.  But… but… this isn’t right.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

[UPDATE] See also Hot Air. And may I say that there’s a part of me that hopes that Pelosi tries to quash this? It’s a lovely time of year for a gutter war.

I was tempted to go with the headline “FEDS RAID VISCLOSKY!” solely to give some of our lurkers acute acid reflux, but really: this is quite good on its own:

Feds subpoena Rep. Visclosky’s offices

Federal law enforcement officials have subpoenaed the congressional and campaign offices of Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) to get information about a former defense lobby firm raided by the FBI, according to Visclosky.

Certain Visclosky employees have also been sent grand jury subpoenas requesting documents related to the PMA Group, a lobby shop with strong ties to the Indiana lawmaker. Visclosky’s former chief of staff, Rich Kaelin, was a high-profile lobbyist at the firm that closed its doors at the end of March.

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OK, I admit it: the Ambassador to France part is mostly mentioned because of the Yo Gabba Gabba thing. Which is something that I’ve never actually watched, although I have a sinking feeling that as the kids get older I will be forced to correct that. Anyway, it’s business as usual when it comes to giving out the prestige diplomatic appointments:

Big Dem Donors Score Plum Ambassadorships

Yo Gabba Gabba, indeed.

President Obama last night announced his intention to nominate a dozen individuals to key ambassadorships. Among them: entertainment executive and Democratic fundraiser Charles Rivkin, who the president has tapped to be Ambassador to France.

In 2005 Rivkin became president and CEO of W!LDBRAIN, an award-winning entertainment company that produces the Nickelodeon hit “Yo Gabba Gabba!” He served as the co-finance chair in California of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

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‘Ours/theirs’ referring to which side of the partisan political spectrum this, well, nutjob was on:

Reporter Dragged Kicking and Screaming From Near Air Force One

A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday.
Airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms as she protested her removal.

She later identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon and said she has White House press credentials. The newspaper’s Web site says it is a monthly publication and Brenda Lee column is posted on it.

Calls to the newspaper and the White House press office were not immediately returned.

It was a tough call: on the one hand, she was trying to apparently hand off a letter to the President asking him to support ‘traditional marriage.’ On the other hand, she was dressed as, and identifying herself as, a Roman Catholic priest.

And now you know why this story’s getting reported.

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I had the opportunity to speak with South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley the other day. Rather than subject you to my stammering and verbal tics, I’ve summarized the call below, with transcribed quotes as appropriate, and three longer ones highlighted.

Bottom line: State Representative Haley is a candidate that anyone interested in fiscal reform should take a good look at. The interview did not go overly into social issues, but her views on life and family issues appear solid. Her donation page is here; Facebook group, here; and official stance on issues, here.

On her background:

Nikki Haley was born and raised in Bamberg, a small (population 2,500) town in South Carolina: “we learned accountability & responsibility early, because the second we thought about doing something wrong, someone was already calling and telling our mom.” She’s a second-generation Indian-American with a public school education and an accounting degree from Clemson University, which she later used to help improve and expand her parents’ family business. She is married, with two children: her husband is in the Army National Guard.

“I am the daughter of two immigrant parents who came here with eight dollars in their pocket that never let us forget what a blessing it is to live in this country: I’m the sister of a man who fought in Desert Storm and I remember what it was like to wonder if he would come home; I’m the wife of a husband in the military who loves his job; I’m the mother of two children who attend public schools and I wonder what their lives are going to be like when they grow up; and I’m a legislator who knows what good government can look like, and I want people to know what it feels like.”

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Looks like it’s Alderman Isaac Carothers, a close ally of Mayor Daley.  And isn’t that interestingly close to the center of a lot of power structures

Press conference starts at 2 PM CST.

Look who they’ve farmed the prep work off on:

Cynthia Hogan, chief counsel to Vice President Biden, will lead the White House team, with assistance from several other Biden aides. Former Obama campaign adviser and transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter will handle message and communications, two administration officials tell CNN.

The vice president, a veteran of Supreme Court nominations from his time on the Judiciary Committee, is also expected to play a key role, an administration official confirmed to CNN.

This helpful graphic may clarify the point:

That’s from the Alito hearings, which the Democrats rather badly wanted to short-circuit, but couldn’t. I concur in the implicit advice suggested by that graphic and the end of the CNN article: GOP Senators, make Sotomayor talk and talk and talk. Short questions, make her clarify everything, and the Senators going on later, keep track of what she was saying earlier and ask her about that.  And here is my radical suggestion for these hearings:

I want every Republican Senator on that committee to set a goal of no more than 1,000 words for questions, and stick to it.

These are days for boldness.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

(Via AoSHQ): In 1988, I was a Democrat.  I came from a long line of Democrats; we were a good union household, the old blue-collar generation pushing the new generation into white collar.  When it came to political heroes, it was FDR, Truman, JFK all the way: my parents voted for Carter, and grumbled about Reagan throughout his term.  1988 was my first election, and I went right down to the polling place and proudly voted for Dukakis/Bentsen.  In short, I was a Democratic voter in a Democratic family in a Democratic state in a Democratic region who voted for two Democrats.

And if my Democratic parents had ever caught me calling a Republican First Lady crude names, even by implication, I would have gotten whacked on the ear*.

Speaking Bluntly
Mark Hemingway

[snip]

Three pages in, after lamely trying to establish his bipartisan bona fides by talking up George H. W. Bush, Reid shares this charming anecdote about his early days in the Senate: “[Former Texas senator and vice-presidential candidate Lloyd] Bentsen went on and on effusively about what a quality man President-elect [H. W.] Bush was. Then he paused and said, ‘But watch out for his wife; she’s a b[*]tch.’ I have never had anything against Mrs. Bush, but guided by Bentsen’s crude advice, I’ve always said that our forty-third president is more his mother than his dad.”

Which I guess makes me different from Harry Reid.

Thank God.

Moe Lane

*In fact, my mom would probably still do it.  And I’d sit there and take it, too.  That’s because I was raised to respect women.

I was first tipped off to this by the NRCC’s blog: Jack Murtha is going to have a primary opponent. For those who were wondering: Murtha did not have a primary opponent in 2008. Or 2006.  Or 2004*.  You have to go back to 2002 to see the last time that anybody tried to challenge him, in fact.

From the Post-Gazette’s blog:

Today, former naval officer Ryan Bucchianeri announced he would run against Murtha for the Democratic nomination for the 12th District congressional seat next year. The Monongahela native graduated from Ringgold High School in 1993 and then the U.S. Naval Academy, before receiving a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Bucchianeri won’t win the primary, of course – the netroots will be the only ones who might give him the money that he needs to make a successful challenge, and they’ll never support an unapologetic war veteran over a man who calls Marines murderers, particularly when the latter is also a crony of the Speaker of the House.  But that’s all right.  The fact that he’s getting one in the first place tells us that he’s more vulnerable than he’s been.  So we go after him next year.  If that doesn’t work, 2012.  If that doesn’t work, 2014.

Eventually we’ll get him.

Moe Lane

*He didn’t have an opponent in the general election, either.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.