BCarr on twitter gives this sad picture that title, referencing the scene in Spinal Tap where they're reduced to playing at Six Flags type venues, and furthermore, receive second-billing to a puppet-show.

From Drudge:

Posted by: Ace at 07:32 AM | Comments (85)
Post contains 44 words, total size 1 kb.

Deleting and shredding party scheduled.

“Top Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Holder, know more about Operation Fast and Furious than they have publicly acknowledged,” Issa stated. “The documents this subpoena demands will provide answers to questions that Justice officials have tried to avoid since this investigation began eight months ago. It’s time we know the whole truth.”

To that end, Holder is required to produce virtually every communication anyone associated with the Justice Department or ATF ever sent to anyone regarding Operation Fast and Furious, or “any Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force firearms trafficking case based in Phoenix, Arizona.” The subpoena specifically names no less than 16 DOJ officials, including Holder, his deputy James Cole, Assistant Attorneys General Lanny Breuer and Ronald Weich, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco, among other names familiar to students of the Fast and Furious scandal.

Also specified in the subpoena are communications with Acting ATF Director Ken Melson, United States Attorney Dennis Burke, and ATF Special Agent in Charge William Newell. House Oversight wants all communications to or from Newell from 12/14/10 – 01/25/11 and 03/16/19 – 03/19/09. It looks like they’re trying to pin down exactly what Newell might have shared with his White House pen pal, national security staffer Kevin O’Reilly.

They’re also keenly interested in documents relating to the murder of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, whose death has long been suspected of links to gun walking… but not Operation Fast and Furious, which ran out of the Phoenix, Arizona ATF office. The Zapata murder weapon was traced back to Dallas, Texas. Further documentation relating to the death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, whose murder scene produced two Fast and Furious guns plus a third “mystery weapon” that might also point back to Texas, is also sought.

Posted by: Ace at 06:58 AM | Comments (210)
Post contains 310 words, total size 2 kb.

The solution to unemployment: a "negative income tax"? I've inveighed against the minimum wage for many years, because it is another example of price-control failure on the part of the government (your wage is the "price" of your labor, and when this price is artificially inflated, it damages the market for that labor). Still, Friedman's "negative income tax" would require a fundamental transformation of our tax system that would require buy-in from both Democrats and Republicans, which of course means that this will never happen.

The so-called “Supercommittee” will force some really unpalatable choices on the GOP. But as we learned in the movie Wargames, sometimes the only winning move is not to play.

If GOPers sell out for either of the first two reasons, then thereÂ’s really no hope. America will become Greece and we may as well stock up on canned goods, bottled water, and ammo.

CaliforniaÂ’s Kafkaesque rent-control laws. Rent control is one of those evergreen liberal manias that just keep failing, generation after generation. No matter that the efforts always fail to have the intended effect; liberals are all about good intentions, never about actual results.

Germans push for a “hard” Greek default. If they’d done this a year ago, things might not have gotten to such a horrible state. They’ve only delayed the inevitable, and made the damage far more expensive to mitigate.

To Democrats, itÂ’s never their ideas that are wrong. Either the execution of the plan was bad, the timing was wrong, or the people were too stupid to follow the plan. ItÂ’s a variant of the academic belief that when reality trumps theory, so much the worse for reality. ThereÂ’s always the argument that next time, if only we are better people, or move this lever or that knob in just such a way, things will work out better.

Pension funds, actuaries, and the law of unintended consequences.

The end of “comfortable Keynesianism”.

The Great Chinese Bank Bailout has begun.

If you piss hot...no welfare check for you!

S&P and Fitch to Spanish banks: BAM!

The world is full of chumps, and confidence men eager to exploit them. This is not a defect of captialism; it is an aspect of human nature and thus not amenable to the social-engineering so beloved of the Left. Incentives matter...and so do consequences.

The Greeks have no gas, and their world is littered with garbage. Wasn't there a movie about this?

Give it to me straight: how bad is it going to be?

As usual, Democrat initiatives to punish the rich end up hurting the poor the most.

Okay, pal: there’s a lot of s**t I’ll put up with. I’m an easy-going guy. Live and let live, you know? But you start taking shots at Milton Friedman, s**t’s gonna jump off right quick. I’ll throw down! (Dani Rodrik, I’m sure you’ll be shocked to discover, is a Professor of International Political Economy -- whatever the hell that is -- at Haaaaavahd. I’m so shocked that a tenured academic with no private-sector work experience thinks the free-market is too “free” that I’m going to have to sit down before I fall over in a dead faint.)

Those “Occupy Wall Street” hippies seem to have some sort of a problem with the Jooos. But in the leftist universe, everything always boils down to those Jooos and their money, doesn’t it?

When all your hopes and dreams rest on a decision by tiny, poor Slovakia, youÂ’re probably boned already. But then: this is the Eurozone, where bad policy, bad planning, and general governmental incompetence are the order of the day. And by the way: Slovakia didn't give the EU the answer they wanted, so the Slovaks will fire those chumps and hire more tractable ones.

European leaders looking at the financial crisis like a rabbit at a snake. Richard Adams in his novel Watership Down coined a word for this state of immobilizing panic: tharn.

The next bubble to burst: consumerism? I dunno if I'd call it a "bubble" -- maybe we just finally have enough stuff. Even Americans can only absorb so many flat-screen TV's, jet-skis, iPads, and Coach purses.

The so-called “Supercommittee” was designed to fail, so we’re going to find out if the ratings agencies are serious about further downgrading US debt. The initial shot has already been fired, so I think further downgrades will come easier to the ratings agencies.

If only Eurozone nations would do things they either cannot or will not do, everything would be fine! Ultimately, Europe is going to be faced with a hard choice: save the Euro by going the fiscal union route (i.e., a "United States of Europe" where the Eurozone nations give up a large chunk of their sovereignty); or just give up the Euro as a really bad idea and deal with the pain and expense of reverting back to the various national currencies. I seriously doubt fiscal union is going to happen, but the Eurozone countries have not yet nerved themselves up to face the second option just yet. I'm not sure how much worse things will have to get before they decide that the game isn't worth the candle.

UPDATE 1: Crackerjack WSJ financial reporter Peter Wallison writes about "Wall Street's gullible occupiers". I note in passing that you can find people like this in any age, and any economy, boom or bust: the unlucky ones, the sad-sacks, the terminally helpless, the stupid, the lazy, those burdened with bad decision-making skills and poor impulse control. People like this remind me of those fart-machines you can buy at Spencer's: they serve no useful purpose, they make a lot of obnoxious noise, but ultimately they are harmless and will be forgotten shortly.

UPDATE 2: Via Jean in the comments: Harrisburg, PA files for bankruptcy. This was probably inevitable, but it took longer than I thought it would.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:51 AM | Comments (214)
Post contains 1013 words, total size 9 kb.

Everyday I'm shufflin'.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:51 AM | Comments (190)
Post contains 11 words, total size 1 kb.

Down with the thieving corporations like Dupont, Walmart, and Ace LLC. We demand an end to this blogging oppression! And dental insurance for all the cobs!

The commenters - united - will never be defeated!! The commenters - united - will never be defeated!! The commenters - united - will never be defeated!! The commenters - united - will never be defeated!! The commenters - united - will never be defeated!! The commenters - united - will never be defeated!! The commenters - united - will never be defeated!!

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:16 PM | Comments (532)
Post contains 625 words, total size 6 kb.

The debates, like the playoffs, need to start weeding out the weak.

Just sayin. It's time.

But you can read all that other political doo doo down there. This here is football, the only game I apparently know nothing about, 5 weeks into the season. Ben and CDR M report the following:

The Detroit Lions of the AoS Pick'em World

Scott 47, (who leads the leaderboard, agonizing over last night's game as much as I've ever seen anyone agonize, and that's sayin something).

The Plauge 46
Muletrain2016 45
FMG: 45

(TWO OTHERS AT 44)

Now, that right there is a problem, because I don't know who these two at 44 are. But you know who you are.

AnthonyL 43
Country Blumkins 43
Purity Republican 43

The Philiadephia Eagles of the AoS Pick'em World

Drew 41
Gabe 38
rdbrewer 37
Ben 35
Andy 35
CDR M 35
Russ from Winterset: 33

Cahbahs

DiT 32

(there's no way in hell I'm gonna be a Philadelphia Eagle of anything)

Also, Rangers down 5-1 in the bottom of the 7th. You win the first two, you come back to Texas. That's a rule or something.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:15 PM | Comments (12)
Post contains 203 words, total size 1 kb.

Another one of these things. Because what could be smarter than letting the MFM pick our candidate? Again.

The October 11th debate will be moderated by Charlie Rose, Washington Post political correspondent Karen Tumulty and Bloomberg TV White House correspondent Julianna Goldman. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum will participate in the live debate at Dartmouth College.

Starts at 8:00pm. Livestream here and here. Also: the Bloomberg TV channel finder.

I would suggest some drinking game rules, but with Charlie Rose moderating it's going to be hard enough to stay awake sober. Drink 'em if ya got 'em, I guess.

Standard reminder: Your comments do not automatically display. So don't ask "Why aren't my comments displaying?" They don't display.

They're not posted comments a la chat room. Instead they go to queue, which the producers (cobloggers) read, and we post them, by hand, if we think they make a good point.

Liveblog thingy below the fold.
more...

Posted by: andy at 03:45 PM | Comments (760)
Post contains 200 words, total size 2 kb.

Last week, I think, I was talking to someone, and the possibility of a Herman Cain/Barack Obama contest came up.

"It would be pretty amazing," this someone said. "Two black candidates for President!"

"One and a half," I corrected.

And then I noted that we'd be able to do something hitherto undreamed: We could actually play the race card.

We could actually call Obama and his supporters... Racist.

This thought amuses me to no end. I don't care if that's unprincipled or inconsistent or what-- I'm doing it, if it comes down to that. The left has such fun with the race card. It's about time we had fun, too.

It wouldn't be effective, mind you. The country isn't going for a "vote for the black guy" pitch in 2012. Kind of got burned on that in 2008.

But it would be fun.

Herman Cain thinks so too.

Ticking off ways he could compete with Obama, Boortz says that Cain would be able to talk about the black experience in America.
Cain’s response: “[Obama's] never been a part of the black experience in America.”

But for now, Cain says he's going after Romney.

In a radio interview just now, Herman Cain previewed his Tuesday night debate plan: “I’m going after Romney.”

"IÂ’m not going after Perry. I donÂ’t need to go after Perry," Cain said, per POLITICO's Juana Summers.

Romney's had a free pass for most of the debates. Perry tried to go after him in the last two, but bungled it and wound up whiffing.

Cain's had a free pass himself.

It would be interesting to see both of these guys tested. I would like to know who can handle the attacks and who's deft with attacks in turn.

Meanwhile: The Barack Obama Parkway opens in Orlando.

Mile and a half of road. $10.5 million bucks. 150 temporary jobs. Wonderful.

Posted by: Ace at 01:32 PM | Comments (354)
Post contains 327 words, total size 2 kb.

Via Networked blogs:

But only a slight difference.

While reporters at first didnÂ’t always cover tea party rallies, Russo said, a California newspaper has recently been putting stories about the Occupy Wall Street on its front page.

“The Sacramento Bee actually had a front-page story before the rally, telling people where it was and what time it was,” Russo said.

...

Mark Meckler, the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, struck a similar note, saying that when the tea party protests first began, “we were ignored, mocked, and then attacked by the media” and “called ‘Astroturf,’ ‘fringe,’ ‘racists’ and ‘Nazis.’”

“Yet today, the leftist media seemingly cheers for a group of lawbreaking miscreants who have openly committed a variety of illegal acts,” Meckler said.

The media is always going to be kind to its precious lefties, but that doesn't mean they themselves are lefty. Oh dear no.

Thanks to lu.

Posted by: Ace at 01:17 PM | Comments (92)
Post contains 178 words, total size 2 kb.

Offensive:

Mitt Romney said today that Rick Perry needs to “repudiate” the remarks made by Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress about Mormonism Saturday in his introduction of Perry at the Value Voters Summit.

This is sort of interesting. Jeffress intended his remarks to help Perry, and also, I suppose, to further the notion that Mormonism is a cult.

But what's going to end up happening is that Perry will either say Mormonism is not a cult, which in thus hurts Jeffress' second goal, or will not say either way, which will hurt Perry, at least with voters who are against the idea of a religious test and different classes of citizenship based on religious allegiance.

Perhaps that's a good thing. It's interesting, though, that bringing stuff like this into the open so often backfires. There's some kind of lesson in that.

Bryan Preston isn't having any of this, though.

Romney even hit Perry for saying that Jeffress’ remarks “hit it out of the park.” Romney decried a “religious test” and called on Perry to disassociate himself from Jeffress’ remarks.

The problem with RomneyÂ’s version of what happened is that itÂ’s almost entirely untrue.

The Perry campaign did not select Rev. Jeffress; the Summit selected him and got a perfunctory sign-off from the campaign. Rev. JeffressÂ’ remark that Mormonism is a cult was not made in his introduction to Gov. Perry, but in remarks made to reporters later. As soon as he was aware of JeffressÂ’ remark, Perry did in fact disassociate himself with them entirely.

Romney seems to be demanding much more than a simple "disassociation," though. He basically wants Perry to repudiate and scold his base.

Which obviously would be bad for Perry.

Jeffress' anti-Mormon stuff might have worked if it had been stealthier, but he went obvious with it and now the guy he'd hoped to help is in even more political trouble.

Christie also rapped Perry hard on that at today's endorsement. He then went on to defend RomneyCare...

Speaking about Romney’s Massachusetts health-care program, Christie said it was “completely intellectually dishonest” to compare it to Obamacare.

...and it turns out that today is a particularly bad day to claim the systems cannot "honestly" be compared.

The records, gleaned from White House visitor logs reviewed by NBC News, show that senior White House officials had a dozen meetings in 2009 with three health-care advisers and experts who helped shape the health care reform law signed by Romney in 2006, when the Republican presidential candidate was governor of Massachusetts. One of those meetings, on July 20, 2009, was in the Oval Office and presided over by President Barack Obama, the records show.

“The White House wanted to lean a lot on what we’d done in Massachusetts,” said Jon Gruber, an MIT economist who advised the Romney administration on health care and who attended five meetings at the Obama White House in 2009, including the meeting with the president. “They really wanted to know how we can take that same approach we used in Massachusetts and turn that into a national model.”

Politico casts tonight as "Now or Never" for Perry, and, despite his solid fundraising, I think that might be right.

And will the knives come out for Cain?

Santorum's in a huff that no one's taking him seriously yet.

One candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, has signaled that he may be taking aim at Cain. Before CainÂ’s recent surge, many speculated that Santorum could be the next to rise.

In a new radio ad running in Iowa, Santorum accuses Cain of “strongly” supporting “the Wall Street bailouts.” (RELATED: Country singer Lee Greenwood endorses Cain)

And Santorum, whose campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story, also has made it clear he doesn’t agree with Cain’s tax plan: “I know there’s a plan out there, the 9-9-9. I’ve got a better one; it’s the zero-zero-zero plan,” he said at a conservative gathering last week.

Zero Zero Zero plan? Awesome. Bullshit bullshit bullshit.

Posted by: Ace at 12:21 PM | Comments (388)
Post contains 681 words, total size 5 kb.