Archive for 2010
September 24, 2010
IS ETHANOL SAFE for older cars?
FROM DEREK LOWE: A rant on pharmaceutical research.
A QUESTION FOR Congressman Jim Marshall.
THE PATRICK KENNEDY SEAT is in play again.
NUDISTS TROUBLED BY SWINGERS:
One told the paper that they had moved to the area because they wanted “a natural life” but that they had ended up living “surrounded by wild animals”.
Didn’t really think that state of nature thing through, did you?
CNN POLL: Obama hits all-time low. “The president’s approval rating now stands at 42 percent – an all time low in CNN polling and 8 points lower than where Obama was only three weeks ago. Moreover, 56 percent of all Americans think the president has fallen short of their expectations.”
But wait, there’s more: “In even worse news for congressional Democrats, likely voters say they are considerably more likely to vote for a candidate the president opposes than one he supports. On the other hand, 50 percent of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a Tea Party-backed candidate while a third of Americans said Tea Party support would dissuade their vote for a candidate.” This is why attacking the Tea Party movement is probably a bad idea for Obama — it’s considerably more popular than he is.
THE CONSENSUS IS WRONG? Texting And Driving May Not Lead To More Crashes.
HOLLYWOOD’S BOOMING merkin business.
HMM: A possible Obama primary challenge. “This critique is of course ludicrous. But for President Obama, it highlights a serious threat: in the aftermath of the forthcoming midterm elections, where Democrats are going to suffer enormous losses, liberals will grow more angry, more disillusioned, and more disgusted with Obama and the Democratic Party establishment.”
DISTRACTION: So, yesterday reader John Mark Williams suggested that the Colbert testimony was intended to distract from coverage of Christopher Coates’ testimony about the Justice Department’s racism scandals. If so, it’s worked. Front page of Daily Caller: Colbert. Drudge led with Colbert until the news of the Klein & Zucker firings came out. Limbaugh led off today talking about Colbert. NRO has covered Colbert at The Corner, but not Coates. Washington Examiner headline: Colbert. Looking around other sites, I see more about Colbert than Coates. Hot Air and Power Line did better.
But let me quote the Power Line treatment: “Coates’s testimony is a bombshell. It exposes a couple of Obama administration scandals at once. One involves the Obama administration’s attempt to cover up the rationale for burying the case against the NBPP. The other involves the Obama administration’s support for the racially based administration of justice. Coates’s testimony is suggestive of other scandals as well. You probably won’t be hearing much about it on the broadcast news tonight or in the papers tomorrow, but we all should do everything we can to get the word out.”
I expect the usual JournoList types to provide cover (it’s not like this is a scandal involving a Republican Justice Department, after all, which would be news), but I’m kind of surprised to see so many people who should know better taking the bait on a non-story about a fictional character.
UPDATE: Reader Trent Nix disagrees:
I’m hearing lots of reporters and members of the intelligentsia bemoan Colbert’s testimony as “making a mockery” of the hearing, but I can’t say I see it that way. It’s certainly unfortunate that he’s distracting a few talking heads from the DOJ-Black Panther brouhaha, but he’s also doing an important work as well. He’s exposing the ridiculous nature of these hearings and the circus that our political class indulges in. I’ve got a feeling that even Colbert thinks it was absurd that he’s testifying and is fully committed to exposing how deeply absurd it really is. I’d like to say the man and his bit is a work of genius if all of this weren’t so obvious what would happen from the outset.
Sure, he’s doing a bit, but so is most everyone else in the room whether it’s the brain-dead Congresswoman who invited him, the corrupt and contemptible John Conyers who decided this absurdity was beneath him, the flaccid Republicans who are trying to create “serious” soundbytes bemoaning the circus they so often happily perform in, or the reporters/shills who thought he was on their team. At least he’s honest about his bit. I can’t say the same for the rest of those losers.
Well, as I mentioned before, it’s the presence of a professional clown among a bunch of amateurs. And reader Bill McConnell writes:
If Colbert’s testimony was meant to distract what a price they paid!!! All the reviews of his testimony are negative and a lot of Democrats are going to wish they’d never heard of Colbert before this is over.
Well, that may be true. But still . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Treacher is on the ball.
MORE: Reader Mark Linder writes:
You and John Mark Williams are right to suppose that the administration and its supporters are much happier with people talking about Colbert and not Coates. As ridiculous as Colbert makes Congress look, and perhaps Mr. Nix is correct that Colbert’s point is to expose them, the worst that will happen is people thinking “There they go again” while going on with their daily lives. If Mr. Coates’s testimony and what it means for this administration’s attitudes about law and the use of the Federal Department of Justice became the topic, it would shake the basic attitude toward federal power of many people who are generally open to the suggestion that a powerful government may on the whole be something we can live with. I think that many more people would begin to regard the state at any level with a lot more wariness, and that the bargain that’s been on offer, i.e., you can trust us with power because we’ll provide what you need fairly, will be rejected by an even greater proportion of the voting public.
Indeed. Whether the distraction was planned, or accidental, it’s a mistake to be distracted here.
IN THE MAIL: From James Swanson, Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse.
SPACE POLICY: My PJTV Interview With Rand Simberg. In which we defend the Obama Administration’s policy.
SAY IT AIN’T SO: Byron York: White House Uses FlimFlammery To Inflate Job Numbers.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama Made Us Do It! “Yes, Bush’s utility for blame is now like that of the demonized Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, Fox News, Glen Beck, Wall Street, the insurers, the surgeons, the Republicans, and John Boehner, and so has pretty much expired. Even Move.on.org cannot believe that all the above kept the country at nearly 10% unemployment. Instead, the new mantra for Democratic candidates is a sort of ‘Obama Made Us Do It!’ And I cannot recall ever quite seeing that in American politics. Even the slaughtered House Republicans of 2006 did not plead in their campaigns that they were coerced or duped by George Bush.”
ON PJTV NOW: LIVE COVERAGE: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights New Black Panther Party Testimony. Testimony will begin in a few minutes.
UPDATE: At PJM, Full Text of Christopher Coates’ Testimony to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (PJM Exclusive).
ANOTHER UPDATE: C-SPAN is covering, too, as of 10 a.m.
CULINARY NAME-DROPPING. Plus, the incredible deliciousness of Spamaroni. Yum, yum!
I WISH I’D LISTENED MORE TO ALL THOSE TALK-RADIO ADS TELLING ME TO BUY GOLD: Gold Climbs to $1,300 on Dollar Concern; Silver at 30-Year High.
THE HILL: Landrieu to block OMB nominee unless oil drilling ban lifted. “A Gulf Coast Democrat is vowing to block Senate confirmation of President Obama’s budget director until the administration agrees to lift or ease a federal freeze on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) hold on Jacob Lew, Obama’s widely praised pick to run the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), marks a dramatic political escalation of her battle against the temporary drilling ban, imposed as a safety measure after the BP oil spill.” They told me if I voted for John McCain, pro-oil interests would hold the government hostage. And they were right!
REMEMBER WHEN OBAMA SAID IT WAS WRONG FOR CORPORATIONS TO SEND PEOPLE TO VEGAS? Investigation: 140 Census Bosses Took Vegas Trip. “The trip cost an estimated $100,000 in airfare, meals and hotel costs and is coming under withering criticism from a Colorado congressman.” Spending restraint, like taxes, is for the little people.
PETER SUDERMAN: Wasn’t ObamaCare Supposed to Be Popular By Now? “Despite spending months involved in intensive outreach and messaging campaigns both before and after the law’s passage, Democrats still seem to think that the problem is that the public doesn’t understand the law’s benefits. But there’s some evidence that much of the public aware of the law’s major benefits. The problem, I suspect, is that they’re also aware of the law’s costs.”
PJTV POLL: Tea Party Gaining Support Among African-American Voters. “Our survey found that more than one-in-three African Americans support the movement. Moreover, the data revealed that 32 percent are also likely to vote for a congressional candidate who the Tea Party supports.” If this pans out, it’s a big deal.
POLITICAL DEATH THREATS: Will Law Professors Rally Around (A Conservative) One Of Their Own? “There are vile people out there. As I’ve pointed out before, soon after I started this blog the Obama supporters started attacking me via e-mail and at times it has been vicious. The e-mails are sent not only to me, but to others who know me in an attempt to interfere with my employment. It doesn’t work, but it is not a pleasant experience the first few times it happens, although now it is something of a joke. So I feel for Mr. Henderson. But I wondered, how many law professors will come to his defense either privately or publicly?” (Bumped).
HOTLINE: Even Shepard Fairey’s Losing Hope.