Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out:

"We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns," Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) told the Columbus Dispatch. "It's the southerners."

Voinovich, a native Clevelander who retires after the 2010 election, continued after the southern elements of the GOP.

"They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr,'" he said. "People hear them and say, 'These people, they're southerners. The party's being taken over by southerners. What they hell they got to do with Ohio?'"

Since when did Republicans care where you were from as long as you were for lower taxes and limited national government, standing up for all ten parts of the Bill of Rights, free markets, and a sane foreign policy? What the hell is wrong with this guy?

Click over to read John's entire reply with video of Voinovich crying over his opposition to sending John Bolton to the UN.

(Although, John is wrong about whether Oklahoma is a southern state. True, it's at the crossroads between the South-proper, the Midwest, and the Southwest but Oklahoma has much more in common with southern states like Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas than it does midwestern states like Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa.)

And let's be honest. The problem with the GOP certainly isn't too many DeMints and Coburns. Not. One. Bit. Squishy, weepy Voinovich, though...he won't be missed.

More [DrewM.]: Below the fold, Voinovich demonstrates what he thinks 'real' Republicans should do when they get on TV...cry like an 8 year old who was just told they have to go to bed early. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:38 AM | Comments (2)
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Happy Tuesday.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:09 AM | Add Comment
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N/t.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:34 PM | Add Comment
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So much nuance I'm drowning.

Posted by: Ace at 08:08 PM | Add Comment
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Insolence up with which Harvard's Department of Assholery will not put.

And an overnight thread, I guess.

Drudge Funny: I liked Drudge's (or Breitbart's) "HOT MESS" headline for Obama over the weekend. I dig the new one too.

Posted by: Ace at 07:58 PM | Add Comment
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Obama, as has been noted widely, is willing to sign anything called "Health Care Reform," just as long as his ego gets its big win.

Which is sort of a problem. Because I really can't see these idiots doing anything helpful. Quite the opposite. So I'd rather Obama stood firm and vetoed anything that didn't contain his "transformative" system-destruction provisions.

The Democrats seem to be watering this down enough that it might end up getting passed. In all likelihood it will still be all kinds of bad. Just not all kinds of bad enough to prevent passage.

After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials.

Like bills drafted by Democrats, the proposal under discussion by six members on the Senate Finance Committee would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to any applicant. Nor could insurers charge higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

But it jettisons other core Democratic provisions in a reach for bipartisanship on an issue that has so far produced little.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

Update: Allah has more details on the new plan.

I don't really get it myself -- supposedly the public option will be taken off the table, but put back on the table will be quasi-public co-ops -- "Fannie Meds," Allah calls them, government sponsored health-care enterprises -- which supposedly are some kind of Goldilocks solution (for soft statists, at least) of just the right blend of pretend capitalism and de facto socialism.

The left is saying Public Option or Nothing, leading Allah to muse:

ItÂ’ll be mighty interesting to watch the Democrats pitch this to the left as a de facto public plan while theyÂ’re pitching it to the right as anything but.

Seems to me more of the same. Politicians pushing this can't quite explain what it is, because they can't quite agree what it is, and that's largely because there are competing, irreconcilable goals here (cover everyone vs. reduce costs, maintain private system vs. singe payer) that being "reconciled" not through genuine compromise and trade-off, but by simply keeping things so vague no one -- not even the legislators involved -- can really say what the hell this is.

"Voting present," in other words. Refusing to take a clear, identifiable stand for one principle or another, instead pretending that all principles (especially the flat-out contradictory ones) are being honored, and hoping, I guess, that unelected bureaucrats work out the actual details that our representatives are supposed to have determined.

Would Obama Sign It? Allah disagrees with me that Obama would sign such a plan. Obama's pot-committed to public option, Allah thinks; it would be too damaging to reverse himself. The left would be too pissed off.

Well, maybe. But let JournoList conspirator and WaPo liberal Ezra Klein explain it to you: This is all about Trojan Horses, sneaking single-payer schemes in stealthily disguised as something else.

Understood that way, maybe the liberals would choke it down.

For now.

He admits right there the whole point is to hoodwink a reluctant public into "accepting" single payer by tricking them into thinking they've accepted something else.

Posted by: Ace at 07:23 PM | Comments (9)
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It's a Brazilian immigrant thing.

Just proving once again that The White Man makes all the pleasures of animal ownership illegal for all other racial groups, while continuing to permit cat shows.

Police arrested 19 people from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey and seized 150 birds in a house raid on an alleged bird-fighting operation. Most of the birds were saffron finches, which are small birds native to South America, and a few were canaries, officials said.

...

Authorities often deal with cock fighting, but police and animal experts said they had not heard of fighting involving finches and canaries before.

"We're blazing new territory," said Wayne Kasacek, an assistant director with the Connecticut Department of Agriculture. "This is something for law enforcement and for us to learn about."

Kasacek said some of the birds had previous injuries, including blindness in at least one eye, and may have to be euthanized.

The 19 people, all originally from Brazil, were charged with cruelty to animals and gambling. Police also charged the homeowner, 42-year-old Jurames Goulart, with interfering with officers.

Goulart denied the charges, saying he had the birds for singing.

"I take care of the birds," he told The Associated Press. "They're like my son."

Mr. Goulart's son is kept in a cage, is blind in both eyes, has a rich blue-green hue, and answers to the name "Mr. ImPeckable."

Posted by: Ace at 04:07 PM | Add Comment
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But will any team owners want him?

First, he'll need an owner who'll tolerate protestors showing up at training camp and regular-season games, plus one willing to take any accompanying public relations hit, as small as that might be two years after Vick was committed.

Second, he'll need a creative offensive coaching staff willing to find ways to use him. Chances are, he won't start at quarterback this season, but his undeniable physical gifts and the fact he'll take a valuable roster spot means that the team that signs him must find an innovative way to use a player who always has been a quarterback.

That last part is key. Teams tend to build an offense around their QB's strengths. Michael Vick has an uncommon set of strengths. Namely, he's a runner who happens to pass the ball sometimes. It's hard to imagine a team making the full commitment to make Vick their starter -- at least for a while -- so he'll be stuck in an offense built around a more conventional QB.

At some point, though, he'll be back. Bottom-dwelling teams can put aside a lot of PR concerns to appease their fans' demands for some victories.

So... Detroit?

Food for Thought: I don't know whether I buy this article or not -- mostly not, I think. But it is interesting, and I do wonder why it is that it's somehow impossible for any NFL team to run anything but pro-set offense (and its minor variants).

Posted by: Ace at 03:09 PM | Add Comment
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The controversy--some would say conspiracy--surrounding the President's citizenship was in the news today. It's been slowly breaking into the main stream over the past few weeks. Rush, Coulter, and Medved have all discussed it. It's been on FoxNews. Today, someone finally asked Gibbsy about it. He responded with sarcasm:

I transcribed the key bit:

Question: "Is there anything you can say that will make the Birthers go away?"

Gibbs: "No. I mean, the God's-honest truth is 'no.' I mean, Bill, let's understand this. I almost hate to indulge in such an august setting as the White House--and I mean this in seriousness--the White House briefing room discussing the made-up, fictional nonsense of whether or not the President was born in this country.

"A year and a half ago, I asked that the birth certificate be put on the internet. because Lord knows, if you've got the birth certificate and put it on the internet, what else could be the story? Here's the deal again: if I had some DNA it wouldn't assuage those who don't believe he was born here.

"But I have news for them and for all of us. The President was born in Honolulu, Hawaii."

Setting aside for a minute the fact that DNA damn sure shouldn't convince anyone as to the location of the President's birthplace (WTF?), Gibbs pretty much said this is the last time he wants to hear about the President's citizenship.

Meanwhile, I appreciated this column last week which reviews the entire situation, from the McCain campaign's investigation to the present. I thought the summary of the lawsuits was noteworthy: more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:00 PM | Add Comment
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Easy -- stick a couple of hammer heads up your ass.

No, really.

The man, it is reported, was "inebriated."

He didn't put the entire hammer up his ass, so I guess he was still mostly lucid. Mostly.

Does anyone buy his story? Because I don't. One in a million shot, Doc. One in a million shot.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by: Ace at 02:48 PM | Comments (1)
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