November 7th, 2009 6:43 pm

Just the Beginning?

The results are in from Lehigh County and… well, shoot.

But as I said on Trifecta a few days back, I hope this isn’t the end of Scott Ott’s career in elective politics.

November 7th, 2009 12:52 pm

Must-See Radio

Another week, another edition of PJM Political. On the big show:

Five Questions For James Lileks — including questions about the midterms and The Big Episode of Mad Men last week.

Joe Hicks of PJTV.com on the GOP’s Epic NY-23 Fail during Tuesday’s elections.

PJM producer Ed Driscoll interviews author/historian Jennifer Burns about her new book, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right.

Glenn Reynolds reports from the recently concluded 17th annual State Policy Network meeting in Ashville, NC.

From PJTV’s Poliwood, Pajamas CEO Roger L. Simon and fellow Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd debate the controversial statements from Rocco Landesman, National Endowment for the Arts chairman conflating the writings of President Obama with…Julius Caesar?!

Plus, a special audio edition of Trifecta, with Dana Loesch, Scott Ott, and yours truly.

November 7th, 2009 9:23 am

The Dukes of Moral Hazard

Fannie Mae needs another $15 billion to cover losses due to loaning money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back — and that’s just from this last quarter.

It ain’t over yet.

November 7th, 2009 9:00 am

The Week in Blogs — The Links!

It’s like TV, but in handy electronic print form. We call it “the web.” Anyway, here are the links to this week’s picks.

Damn dirty icy hippies.

If the shoe fits.

Much ado about everything.

Who‘d a thunk it?

Connect the dots.

Not for the squeamish.

They like us, right now they really like us!

Next time, they’ll nuke the handicapped.

The freedom of blogging isn’t for everybody.

Is that a trick question?

Now click over to PJTV and The Week in Blogs to find out what it all means.

November 6th, 2009 5:59 pm

You Asked for It

If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, then the cost of voting Democrat is whatever they decide to charge you for a $15,000 insurance policy. Or five years in jail. Decisions, decisions.

Honestly, for being stupid enough to vote for that crowd, you’re getting off cheap. Then again, I didn’t vote for any of these jokers — so get the hell out of my way.

November 6th, 2009 2:50 pm

Third of Three

Today’s Trifecta — The Obama… Legacy?

Really?

Already?

You can thank the folks at ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos for the topic — they started it. But Dana Loesch, Scott Ott and I finished it.

November 6th, 2009 12:28 pm

More Often Than You Think

I hate it when that happens.

November 6th, 2009 10:11 am

Less Talk, More Rock

Can this be right? Read:

As House Democratic leaders labored to resolve last-minute disputes in their party about abortion and immigration, the man who controls floor action suggested the debate could go into Sunday or next week.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said “delay tactics” could prevent the vote from occurring at the 6 p.m. Saturday scheduled time. But he also acknowledged that leaders do not yet have the 218 votes they need among House Democrats to pass the bill.

Golly. A couple working days, maybe three, seems like an awfully long time to debate the nationalization of one-sixth or so of the US economy.

November 6th, 2009 7:41 am

Then We’ll Slam Our Fingers in a Car Door

No link yet — I just got the flash from CNN on my iPhone (aren’t toys fun?), but unemployment inched up over 10%. That’s the highest since 1983.

So, yes, by all means let’s pass cap & tax right now.

UPDATE: Got a link for you.

November 6th, 2009 7:25 am

Now Cluck Like a Chicken

Kimberly Strassel knows what happened on Tuesday — and so does all of Washington:

The White House and the congressional leadership saw this coming, and it is why Speaker Nancy Pelosi is force-marching her health bill to a vote tomorrow. She’s not about to give her members time to absorb the ugly results, or to be further rattled by next week’s Veteran’s Day break, when they go home for a repeat of the August furies. If not now, she knows, maybe never.

But remember — Tuesday’s election results weren’t indicative of anything. Nope, nothing at all. Merely local contests with no national implications. You’re getting very sleepy… you’re totally relaxed… when I snap my fingers, you’ll wake up and be back in love with The One…

November 5th, 2009 8:15 pm

“Beware of the Leopard”

The new transparency… it’s… uh… it’s poopy.

Sorry, but metaphor fails me.

November 5th, 2009 2:50 pm

Two of Three

Things are a bit different again on today’s Trifecta. I’m playing host, guest star Dana Loesch co-hosts, and the two of us grill Scott Ott on the latest developments in his run for County Executive.

Hint: He still hasn’t conceded.

November 5th, 2009 1:19 pm

Spoileriffic

Finally got a chance last night to watch this week’s Mad Men. Season 3 has had a slow build, but it’s really starting to pay off in the last two episodes. Ed Driscoll has the rundown.

November 5th, 2009 12:21 pm

Confidentially, Ain’t She Sweet?

Related item to last night’s “Terminator” post. From the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund:

That the bill would be a job killer isn’t the only concern. Democrats worry about a backlash from the one-fourth of seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage — a program that faces steep cuts in both the likely Senate and House bills.

But Speaker Pelosi isn’t about to step back. In fact, she plans to force her troops to vote on health care just one day after Friday’s jobless numbers are due, which are likely to show unemployment still growing. “When I take this bill to the floor, it will win,” she proclaimed earlier this year.

One Democratic House moderate says the leadership has mislearned a lesson from the 1994 collapse of Hillary Clinton’s health care bill. “They believe they lost the elections that year because they failed to pass anything,” he says. “But they forget it might have been even worse if they’d passed the wrong bill.”

Fund’s story relies on a couple of Democrats who didn’t want their names used. We’ll know this thing has been killed — and that Pelosi ought to turn in her gavel — when sane Democrats start talking like this on the record.

CORRECTION: According to Speaker Pelosi, that gavel belongs to “the children.” Pajamas Media regrets the error. And laughs at the Speaker.

November 5th, 2009 11:39 am

Required Reading

Back to Iran, where the protests continue without support — or even comment — from the White House:

Not a few Western analysts remain skeptical about the staying power of the Greens and their ability to bring about a political transformation of the country.

They point to the lack of a distinctive opposition leader in the face of a robust security-intelligence apparatus. The realists in Washington note that neither street demonstrations nor increasing internal divisions within the regime have brought about a significant change in behavior.

But this is a superficial and impatient reading of the internal situation in Iran. Iran is less stable and secure than at any time in the past 30 years, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government has been forced to fight on several fronts simultaneously.

It’s a good article, although a bit frustrating due to a bit of wishful thinking. Read:

[Tehran] is battling over the nuclear program with the international community, which is starting to coalesce on sanctions.

Wake me when Russia and China even look like they’re pretending to consider to possibly think about appearing to get on board with a tough sanctions regime.

November 5th, 2009 11:02 am

It’s a Power Grab, Pure and Simple

I’m pro-choice and I find Nancy Pelosi’s latest gambit repugnant.

Honestly, is there nothing from the far left wishlist that Pelosi won’t hide under the banner of “health reform?”

November 5th, 2009 10:02 am

2010: The Year We Break Congress?

Has the White House surrendered [ahem: "preconceded" -ed.] in its War Against Fox News? Probably not, but –

David Axelrod, an ex-newspaper reporter but one of the lead Obama attackers against the Fox News Channel in recent weeks, actually granted an interview to the Fox News Channel.

And later in the piece:

Virginia’s Gov. Tim Kaine, who’s also the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, spent extra national money there and still can’t deliver his own state against a tide of voter dissatisfaction.

Also, they’ll note that Gov. Corzine couldn’t even approach winning New Jersey with that state machine, all the money in the world, a mediocre, overweight Republican opponent, a third-party guy to siphon GOP votes and five presidential appearances in an historically Democratic state that went big for Obama in 2008.

Ouch.

November 5th, 2009 9:31 am

Gentlemen, Start Your Engine

Busy morning here — I’ve got two radio segments to record and a TV show to write and tape. So if you’re looking for something to read, check out Pulp Engine. It’s a new magazine from my buddy Will Collier and his partner-in-crime, Lein Shory.

It’s good stuff.

November 4th, 2009 7:44 pm

First of Three

KFTK’s Dana Loesch sits in Bill Whittle’s chair, and hosts her first-ever Trifecta.

What are we talking about? Tuesday’s elections, of course. And we give it to the GOP a helluva lot better than the Democrats did yesterday.

They’re not Democrats. They’re the Terminator party. Read:

Undeterred by Republican election triumphs in Virginia and New Jersey, Democratic leaders put the U.S. House on a path to vote as early as Saturday on the most sweeping overhaul of health-care policy in four decades.

The election of Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia won’t affect how the House proceeds on legislation to extend insurance to 36 million people and create a government- run program to compete with private insurers, lawmakers said.

Win? Lose? It doesn’t matter to these power-grabbing bastards.

You still don’t get it, do you!? They’ll pass a giant bill! That’s what they do! It’s all they do! You can’t stop them!

November 4th, 2009 12:01 pm

Going, Going…?

From The Hill:

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who serves as deputy GOP whip, told The Hill that the number of Republicans supporting the sweeping legislation will be “very, very close to zero.”

“I don’t know of a Republican out there advocating it,” the lawmaker said.

Meanwhile, on the Senate side, Harry Reid is hinting he hasn’t got the Democratic votes to pass a bill.

November 4th, 2009 10:56 am

Delay of Game

Usually we tape PJTV’s Trifecta on Tuesday afternoon, and get the first segment up that evening or early on the next day — but not this time. We’re shooting this afternoon, now that the election results are in. It would’ve been silly to sit on a story like that for a week.

Also, Bill Whittle is “on assignment” this week, so we have a special guest star sitting in his chair. I’m not telling who it is, but you won’t be disappointed.

Also also, I’ve been assured that “on assignment” does not mean “shuttered up in a Vegas motel with two or three hookers and a jacuzzi full of malt liquor.”

November 4th, 2009 10:46 am

It Ain’t Over Yet

Another protest turns violent in Iran.

November 3rd, 2009 6:25 pm

Going Up?

Results won’t start coming in for a while yet, but here’s where you can track results for Scott “Scrappleface” Ott’s race for Lehigh County Executive. He’s got an uphill battle tonight, but here’s to hoping…

Stephen Green

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