Nightly Ramble Monday

Welcome, one and all, to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the web… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• IT’S LAW, ALREADY….SO WHY ARE THEY STILL TRYING TO SELL OBAMACARE? That’s a question that a reader asked me in email just recently, noting that advertisements (Paid for with tax dollars?) are still trying to sell us this disaster as a GOOD thing. Obama’s out and about doing the same thing…a  week worth of this. The answer is that Obamacare is still wildly unpopular. The Democrats see they’re in trouble… November isn’t all that far off. And by the way… just so you know.. The sales job isn’t helping… or if it is, voter disapproval of Obamacare was far worse than we’re being told.
• WITH SOMEONE LIKE THIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHY SHOULD IRAN BACK DOWN? Valarie Jarrett thinks Iran will eventually back down. I hope she’s right, but I’ll tell you this; They simply will not back down so long as they’ve got Obama and company doing their anti-Israel work for them. I think Glenn Reynolds is spot on here:
  

  Possibly Obama just hates Israel and hates Jews. That’s plausible — certainly nothing in his actions suggests otherwise, really.

  It would not all be unfair to say that the far left, of which Obama is a part, has been looking to scuttle the relationship between Israel and these United States for decades. You see, the problem here is that the United States’ relationship with Israel is based largely on shared values, and of course mutual interests in the region.  The problem is, the left doesn’t share those values.  Then, too, some of what we’ve seen the last several years, it gives rise to the idea that we know whose values in the region they do share.  Hint: it isn’t Israel.

  Now,  this is not to suggest that these anti- Israel types constitute a majority of the American public.  Going all away back to 1967 Israel has had the support of the vast majority of Americans.. On average over that time,  about 46% of those polled,  responded they unequivocally supported Israel versus something on the order of 11.5% for the Arab states which would include the “Palestinians”.  Interestingly, that kind of dramatic disparity suggests that a goodly number of the people supporting Israel are Democrats.  So the question becomes, what do these things about the current administration, and perhaps more importantly,  whose interests are being represented by the misbegotten foreign policy of the Obama administration?

  Interestingly enough, this is a question that’s being asked by 327 signatories to a letter to the president, asking him to do a 180 on his policy towards Israel.

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will continue discussions with his senior ministers in the coming days, looking for a way out of the crisis with the US. He received some badly needed support on Friday from 327 congressmen, who signed a letter expressing concern that “the highly publicized tensions” in US-Israeli ties will “not advance the interests” of either state. …

  Meanwhile, in Washington, [327] congressmen – three-quarters of the House of Representatives – signed a bipartisan letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing solid support for Israel and the expectation that differences between Jerusalem and Washington will be smoothed over quickly and in private.

  “We are writing to reaffirm our commitment to the unbreakable bond that exists between our country and the State of Israel and to express to you our deep concern over recent tension,” the letter read. “A strong Israel is an asset to the national security of the United States and brings stability to the Middle East.

  “We are concerned that the highly publicized tensions in the relationship will not advance the interests the US and Israel share. Above all, we must remain focused on the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear weapons program to Middle East peace and stability.”

  The letter stated that the US’s unswerving commitment to Israel’s security has been essential in forging previous Israeli-Arab peace agreements, “both because it convinced those who sought Israel’s destruction to abandon any such hope and because it gave successive Israeli governments the confidence to take calculated risks for peace.”

  It should be noted that this particular letter was only floating around capitol hill for about three days together this many signatures …. 327 of them … including such luminaries as Steny Hoyer and Eric Cantor. and the bipartisanship here is remarkable given the amount of  partisan vitriol flying around until just now.  All it took to unite Congress is Obama… they’re united against him here. If nothing else, it shows clearly how far out of the mainstream the white house’s on this topic.  I suppose that’s an encouraging sign overall, but still, the White House, misguided as it is, is still the one setting our foreign policy agenda.  And as those 327 congresscritters have seen… that’s a problem.

  Over at Commentary, Jennifer Rubin raises two possibilities as to the current stand of the White House on Israel.  Either this is an intentional affront to Israel, a point which I raised earlier, or it’s a more instinctive, and knee-jerk reaction, reflecting their instinctive dislike for Israel.  That’s a dislike, and frankly, an anti Semitism, that Glenn has already noted.

  In this, we see the intersection of Obama’s multilateralism, his aversion to American exceptionalism, his fetish with his own international popularity, his obsession with engaging despots, his disinterest in promoting human rights, and his hostility toward the Jewish state. They are interlocking pieces in the greater Obama vision — each re enforces the other and makes more precarious the security of not only Israel but also the United States. Obama may suppose he is making America more popular or reducing conflict with rogue states, but instead, he is fueling the ambitions of aggressive despots and frittering away America’s moral standing. We are abetting an international free-for-all as the world’s bullies look for openings to assert themselves and to show just how dangerous it is to be a small democratic ally of the U.S.

  It doesn’t take a great visionary to figure out that Obama’s misbegotten foreign policy is leading us toward another world war.   I hardly think that can be considered an overstatement of the issue.  Indeed, the combination that Jennifer mentions, can hardly lead anywhere else.  It’s interesting that even members of the president’s own party have begun to notice it, too, to the point where they’d sign onto a letter of protest. The question still outstanding, to my mind, it is whether not this stupidity on Obama and companies part is intentional.

  Bill Kristol has some comments as well.

• BRITAIN, TOO? There’s a number of MP’s suggesting that the special relationship between Britain and these United States is also over. It is truly remarkable what hope and change can do, isn’t it?
• HOW THE PUBLIC VIEWS THE TEA PARTY: JammieWearingFool tells us 52% of Americans polled think that the average member of the tea party movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America than does the average member of Congress.  As the Fool says, no wonder the Democrats are in a full court press against the tea party. Oh… and speaking of the Democrats and their frothing over the Tea Party….
• WHY NO COMPLAINTS FROM THE LEFT ON THIS? Oh, wait… it IS the left. BBCT to Founding Bloggers who says:
  

  Supporters of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid staged a counter-protest today in Searchlight, Nevada, the Senator’s hometown.  Reid supporters gathered just down the road from the launching point of the Tea Party Express tour, and when Breitbart happened upon them, he was met with threats of violence.  At least one protester threw an egg at Brietbart, missing him.  Eggs were also thrown at the Tea Party Express bus.

  To add insult to insult, Reid supporters called the police to report that Breitbart had provoked an incident.

  These are the people that were claiming death threats were coming from the tea party are so a while ago.  There’s photos, too. They were also claiming racism, as you will recall. That’s been retracted, too… in the face of the facts.  Trust me, dear reader, what you smell is not an aquarium.

• THE LEFT: THE SOURCE OF RACISM: Now, if you want a real example of racism, all one needs to do is look to one’s left.  Example; Remember, friends, the narrative that the left has been trying to foist off on us about the right, and about the tea party, which these days includes an ever increasing number of rank and file Democrats.  They’re all violent racists… (Chuckle)   And by the way, it’s not like any of that should be a surprise.  Much as they try to cover it, racism is always been part and parcel of the left.  Always.  Consider, as an example, that Margaret Sanger founder of what became Planned Parenthood, and iconic to those on the left, these days, got into the abortion business to control the population of black people. Consider the foundations of the Democrat party, in the post civil war reconstruction south. There are certainly more points along the trend line, but you get the idea.
• MICHIGAN MILITIA: Yes, I saw the bit with the Michigan militia and the FBI doing its thing there.  I confess that my first thought was to the timing of the whole thing. I don’t know if these arrests are politically time to or not, and maybe that the question comes up at all says something about that level of trust most people don’t have in the government, these days.  But I’m going to point up something that I’d like you to think about.   If the White House wanted a diversion from how badly they are going to get mauled on health care next November they could hardly have timed this better.  Apparently Reynolds has been thinking the same thing.

There’s a hustle and bustle, rattle and hum over by the meat section in the commissary.

JonesToTheGrindstone.com

Who gets the top meat?

Shoppers are milling through all of those shiny, plastic sheeting-wrapped packages of meat. Raw and exposed for inspection. Carefully perused and selected with precision. These packages are hand selected and there is a sense of ownership once they are placed in the shopping cart. Like cavemen after a kill—don’t mess with someone’s bloody meat.

Arriving on the scene is Colonel So-and-So’s wife who has rolled in like the Queen of Sheba, or so she thinks. Her husband runs one of the larger squadrons on the base. She believes this title gives her license to do as she pleases in the commissary. He rules the squadron, she feeds the ruler; thus, she can have the best meat selection available to the troops. (Well, that could be her thinking.) What she did do was go over to another’s cart and swipe their meat.  The gall! She liked the look of it and took what she felt was better suited for the commander. She had confidence that it was her prerogative. And no one stopped her either.

On military installations there is a perceived sense of hierarchy of who gets what. How can there not be some kind of pyramid in the military’s social world, too? The installations are run by a non-trifling, enforced chain of command. The uniformed services take this directive as seriously as a heart attack. Not that it should, but their working environment’s world order easily transfers over to the everyday exchanges.

The example of the meat-thieving commander’s wife’s piss poor behavior has a flip-side as well.

We were last stationed at a smallish base in a smallish town. Pretty much what would be described as a “military town.” See, I, too, was a commander’s wife and knew the other like spouses, but no one seemed to know it when I was out and about. So, when I would go off-base and be involved in community activities, I was privy to and would often hear tales of grandiose misbehaviors allegedly performed by commanders’ spouses. (And our commissary, too, was a hub of perceived social hierarchy and often the stark setting for such ghastly moments.)

For instance, supposedly a group commander’s wife was just as much of a hard-ass and unpleasant of a character as her husband. She was described as a “total bitch” and that she would often cut in front of others waiting to check out simply because her time was more precious as a commander’s spouse. This was preposterous. I knew the accused and she was a shy homebody who homeschooled her kids and held great respect for others. I asked one of these pot-stirrers if they actually knew Total Bitch and she confessed to just passing the story around and not actually knowing the spouse.

When sitting back as a casual observer, lessons can be learned on a military base— a kind of microcosm of society. If the person in charge gets the best seat at a formal dinner, then he should get the best food, too, or if the person in charge acts likes a jerk at work, then his entire family is a bunch of jerks, as well. Unfortunately, perception overshadowing reality is a very real facet of the military

Obama Care is a polling disaster, from the Washington Post:

Overall, 46 percent of those polled said they support the changes in the new law; 50 percent oppose them. That is virtually identical to the pre-vote split on the proposals and similar to the divide that has existed since last summer, when the country became sharply polarized over the president’s most ambitious domestic initiative

Who’s the enemy? Funny we had the undie bomber in Detroit and the Muslim major in Texas and who does the FBI raid, from Sarah Weber, Sandusky Register:

A battalion of local officers and federal agents flooded the Bayshore Estates neighborhood Saturday afternoon.

A second raid was conducted in Huron. An FBI agent at the scene of the Bayshore Estates raid said a second, related raid was taking place at “another location.” Huron police confirmed late Saturday a raid had taken place in that city, but would say nothing more.

The Obama administration is more intent of suppressing domestic critics than  protecting us for foreign enemies.    This is not protecting the national security.  Rather it an attempt to distract the public from the disaster that is Obama Care?   The Obami can’t seem to function without a villain to demonize and an artificial crisis to exploit.

Loose Canon Department, meanwhile Alan Greyson (D – Moon) was talking about getting rid of republicans, video:

Hat tip:  Jim Hoft,  Gateway Pundit.

So did the Obami take up Greyson’s suggestion?

Opps, Obami hit reset button back to 1812,  Times(UK):

BRITAIN’S special relationship with the US — forged by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt in the second world war — no longer exists, says a committee of influential MPs.

Instead, America’s relationship with Britain is no more special than with its other main allies, according to a report by the Commons foreign affairs committee published today

Out.

Obama Care breeds the World’s fastest chickens.William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection:

Obamacare’s Chickens Coming Home To Roost Already

Numerous companies already have announced enormous financial write-downs related to Obamacare’s cutback of subsidies for prescription drug benefit programs for retirees.

These subsidies, while characterized by Democrats as “loopholes,” actually saved the government money because it cost less to subsidize private drug programs than for the government to provide the same benefit through Medicare:

Oz knocks BO, Greg Sheridan, Australian:

BARACK Obama’s anti-Israel jihad is one of the most irresponsible policy lurches by any modern American president. It rightly earns Obama the epithet of the US president least sympathetic to Israel in Israel’s history. Jimmy Carter became a great hater of Israel, but only after he left office.

Hat tip:  Donald Douglas, American Power.

BO knocks up Lady Liberty, Darleen Click, Protein Wisdom.(NSFW)     Unlike Obama Care, Darleen’s cartoon will not actually kill anybody.

Dirty Harry Reid’s base turns violent.   The entire Nevada base for Dirty Harry,  all thirty-five of them, showed up in Searchlight to counter a Tea Party rally. from Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit:

There are reportedly THOUSANDS of patriots at the rally. I was just told by a friend that they are having to walk forever to get to the rally.

The Tea Party numbered in the thousands, but it was Dirty Harry’s base which turned violent, from  Tea Party Express:

Supporters of Senator Harry Reid have just thrown eggs at the Tea Party Express bus caravan – striking at least one of the three buses (the red Tea Party Express bus) with multiple eggs.

About 35 Reid supporters had lined Highway 95 in front of the Nugget Casino in Searchlight where they were attempting a counter-demonstration the tens of thousands of tea party supporters who are gathering for the “Showdown in Searchlight.”

Conservative bloggesses prefer  Sean Connery, Fausta:

Feminine-looking men? Ugh

Gotta admit  that the  girl has a way with words.

Blondie’s tour of Canada, the aftershocks report, Kathy Shaidle, Five Feet of Fury:

Come and get me, you fairies.

Out.

Obamafada, Meryl Yourish:

So, the man who proclaimed to AIPAC that he had a “strong commitment” to the “unbreakable bond” between Israel and the United States is leading a full-court press to force Israel to yield to The One’s indomitable will. Let us review:

The Cairo speech:

The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.

The result? Palestinians added a precondition to peace talks that they would only come to the table when Israel freezes all settlement building, including in Jerusalem, which they had never before demanded. This, in spite of the fact that Obama demanded that peace talks be started without preconditions. There was no outburst about Palestinian rejectionism when they refused to come to the table

Obama is a peevish man, who simply does not liket Israel.

Bam’s Bad Day, Ralph Peters, New York Post:

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, was the worst day for US diplomacy in recent memory.

Between sunrise and sunset, we 1) handled our Israeli allies as enemies, 2) treated Pakistani gangsters as our benefactors and 3) got blindsided — brilliantly — by the Russians.

Did Mrs. Clinton promise “smart diplomacy”?

The ‘rats coming bad days, Kimberly Strassel, Wall Street Journal:

‘And so when you walk into that ballot box, remember that it was my Democratic opponent who favored providing Viagra to pedophiles.”

That isn’t a campaign line any American has heard yet, but give it a few hours. The Senate this week took up its “reconciliation” bill, with its final changes to the law the president signed Tuesday. It wasn’t so much reconciliation as reckoning.

Obama care provides for Viagra for registered sex offenders, and Charles Schumer, voted for it.   Tkink about that before your pull your ballot lever in November.

Bam says Obama Care good for small business, from Fred Lucas;

(CNSNews.com) – In his first speech on the road since signing the new health care legislation into law, President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the new law would help small businesses. But critics said the federal mandates in the law would be burdensome and costly to small businesses.

Maybe it is just big business O care is killing?

“Employers as varied as John Deere, Verizon, Caterpillar, Honeywell International, ski resorts, and medical device manufacturers have already announced that this government takeover will drive up their costs,” Price said in a statement.

Then Bam has never been smart enough to hold down a day job.

Blondie goes North, Day Five, Kathy Shaidle, Five Feet of Fury:

There’s an old joke about Canadians, that given the choice between “Heaven” and “Public Inquiry about Heaven,” they’d pick the latter.

We do NOT need an expensive, timewasting “inquiry.” There is nothing left to “inquire” about.

We need ordinary Canadians to send a message to even the most well-intentioned agents of the State: whether on our side (this week, as the wind blows) or against us, we don’t take our orders from you.

Professor – 1 ;  Seattle Slimes –   0:   Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit:

AN IMPLAUSIBLE REPORT IN THE SEATTLE TIMES: “A rock was thrown through the window of Driehaus’ Cincinnati office Sunday.”

Justin Binik-Thomas emails from Cincinnati that Rep. Driehaus’ office “is on the 30th floor of a skyscraper downtown.” He also says that he spoke to Driehaus’ office today and they said this never happened. Which is too bad, in a way, as the Reds could use a guy with an arm like that . . . .

Some professor have it, but alas other do not.

Biology – 1 :  Professor  –  0 : Telegraph(UK)

Professor Peter Kelly, director of public health in Teesside, claimed staff had found a link between social networking sites and the spread of the bacteria, especially among young women.

Correlation is not causation.  Professor Kelly, you ought to be to find a job as a crossing guard.

Welcome, Mr. and Ms. America and all the ships at sea – to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the web… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

It’s cold here outside Casa de Bit… 20 degress going to about 15 tonight. But I suppose it’s the last cold of the season.

• GUESS WHO ISN’T COMING TO DINNER? David already mentioned in the Breakfast Scramble Jackson Diehl’s article in the Washington Post, detailing the diplomatic insults being hurled at Israel. Well, Jim Hoft at the Gateway Pundit goes one step farther giving as details of how Obama canceled out on a state dinner . He also goes on to give us a number of examples of the anti Jewish bigotry shown by the people who Obama gladly had dinner with.  There comes a level of stupidity 11 must seriously consider the possibility that one is not acting stupidly but intentionally.  With a specific purpose in mind.  The left has long had serious problems with America’s relationship with Israel.  I can come to no other conclusion then Obama is intentionally scuttling that long held relationship.  The one I would view it as stupidity.  For, so it is. I began, however, to perceive that we’re seeing here is a conscious effort toward the goal of eliminating Israel from our list of friends in the world.  Can you see him backing out of a dinner arrangement with the leader of Iran, for example?  Does he really think this nonsense will make us more popular among the radical Muslim world?  And do we really want them as friends?  Obama seems to…. I am open to comments on this one, but frankly it’s going to be a hard sell that this is anything but the intentional snubbing of a long held friend.  This is “hope and change”?
• MORE ON MCCAIN AND PALIN: I notice the press paying some attention to Governor Sarah Palin and her stumping for John McCain.  As I said the other day, I think that Sarah Palin damages her credibility, particularly among conservatives.  I have a newsflash for you, Sarah… John McCain is no conservative.    The party is going to have to start getting its act together, with regards to what it wants to be.  Does it want to be a centrist party, or does it want to  be a conservative party ?  If it wants to be a centrist party, they had best get used to minority status.
  The part that amazes me about this, is that the left still considers Palin enough of a political threat, to issue death threats against her. Courtesy of Patterico: …

  On Twitter, a fellow calling himself Jason Brown has been posting since May 10, 2009, and has a total of 379 messages posted so far.  He is a fan of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.  Typical of his leftist political beliefs are messages like this:

  @maddow doesnt Cheney seem like this weird dark evil prince hmm say like Mr. Burns and i guess ol’ George was Smithers

  and this:

  goin 2 watch keith olbermann and laugh at the latest heartless basterds of the world

  and this:

  @carloswatson why does G.O.P. leaders endorse racism,hatred,fearmongering,and falsehoods dont they know the world is witnessing this tactic

  and this:

  their no racist people in the dem.party they all come from the south and they are republican which is why we still see promotion of hatred

  In recent days, Brown has been saying that he is concerned about the violence that he believes Sarah Palin is fostering.

  So, he is threatening to kill Sarah Palin and her family.

  I had hoped to post about 20 screenshots from this guy’s Twitter account, but with the technical work being done on the site I find myself suddenly unable to upload images.  So I will just quote you the messages.  He posted most of them tonight, and they include messages like this:

  @sEaTtLe_MeTrO Death 2 Palin family them retarded hillbillies take teabaggers w/ you hateful bitch

  and this:

  We cant expect gov to intervene we must shoot Gen. Palin on site be 4 her troops strike again!

  and this:

  @interactionswst one word racism choose sides plain and simply that bitch Palin launch an attack, she need 2 b shot on site!

  and this:

  @Palin360 you need 2 b assassinated soon we ll settle 4 one of the family if not u!

  and this:

  maybe it takes a murder or 2 2 get the point across take aim at radical TP members

  and this:

  @BRIANGLAD Palin will b met with gunfire her or her family

  and this:

  @SarahStormRpt u need 2 be shot on site startin that racist Tp shit, all you all do is promo violence dont cry when some kill u basterds

  and this:

  IS Sarah Palin still alive, please feel free 2 domecheck that bitch! she will look good in tha box the TP left on someones lawn

  and this:

  Yeah shorty i know soon as a bitch get killed bout a lie then ppl gone realize how stupid n lack info can get u hurt TP fuckin wit fire

  and this:

  @Southfive her map w crosshair need to b put on her family she that bitch can die or a TP supporter

  and this:

  Does Palin really want what she ask 4? we ll see after death strikes i guess no pose 2 see her rhetoric,it can b dangerous. but who cares!

  and this:

  i got 2 go see how many more targets Gen. Palin got mapped out that bitch gone get or someone i hope its GOP one of them racist fuckers

  and this:

  THe street gangs of america can take on the teabaggers and Palin. TP is callin 4 war just shoot any TP associates and family MS13 BITCHES!

  and this:

  I cant wait till someone serious hurt that bitch Palin or one of her children soon she out of control!

  and this:

  @Oplis the ppl of color have been wait n 4 no one can agree on history so suggest the Palin plan let roll!ms13 will take care of that bitch

  and this:

  Palin came 2 lower 48 2 start a civil divide this could b the moment of truth 4 americans 2 put her down

  and this:

  i encourage ppl 2 meet the TP wit the same acts of violence Palin instructs them 2 do we need 2 harass them 2 their racist graves

  and this:

  #hcr proof that Palin targeted Va. rep. w/ her map and someone followed up we have 2 stop this terrorist name Sarah someone please kill her!

  I wonder if we’re going to see arguments forthcoming that the problem here is the rhetoric coming out of the White House?

  ..

  OF COURSE IT’S A SMEAR ON THE TEA PARTY
  Red state though gets it right:

  I am forced to largely conclude that the Democrats are running to the nearest microphone in an effort to play the victim and generate sympathy as they try to steer poll numbers back in their direction. (See also Ann Althouse)

  Some of it is very bad stuff. I don’t want to underplay the bad. Some of it, however, is not. And some of it is overplayed. Like the press reports about protestors yelling racial epithets at Congressman Lewis, which video shows and reporters I’ve talked to confirm, did not happen, a lot of this is going to be overblown, but the media loves a good story.

  Well, yes, particularly when it makes the leftist look good and the right look bad.  That’s been the pattern along, and I see nothing in this to convince me that the pattern has been changed.
  I must ask again, however, the question I asked over at Outside The Beltway the other day; consider our own American revolution.  Within that context , at what point does violence against a sitting government become legit? I notice the usual leftist crowd over there being quite unwilling to address that question.  The reason is simple enough; they are unwilling to admit that violent actions against ones government is ever justified.  Problem with that statement, is that it makes our own American revolution illegitimate. I ask you to think seriously about this; is there a point at which violence against ones government is the right thing to do?  What is that threshold?  Certainly, you’re never going to see those answers from anyone inside the government, and justice certainly you are not going to see those answers from someone who supports big government… say, for example, supporters of Obama. But consider, with me, the number of people involved in the current administration, and involves in our Democrat run Congress who have a history of being involved with such organizations as SDS, the Weathermen, and other left leaning groups with a penchant for bombing the crap out of city halls, police stations and the Pentegon. Clearly, these think that threshold exists. So, perhaps the issue is not “violence or not” but, rather, ” violence in support of whom? “

• AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE A VIOLENT OVERTHROW IS NEEDED: Crazy Uncle Hugo’s at it again. It’s going to require an armed uprising to kick that monster to the curb. The problem in saying that, of course, …the frightening thing… is that the delta between Venezuela and what we see going on in these United States is becoming ever smaller.

I have a fresh post up over at DodgeBlogium… Andrew Ian Dodge’s place… which sugegsts we’re not going to see a repeal of ObamaCare anytime soon, no matter what kind of screaming you hear from the GOP.

Obama administration stuck on stupid, Jackson Diehl, Washington Post:

Obama has added more poison to a U.S.-Israeli relationship that already was at its lowest point in two decades. Tuesday night the White House refused to allow non-official photographers record the president’s meeting with Netanyahu; no statement was issued afterward. Netanyahu is being treated as if he were an unsavory Third World dictator, needed for strategic reasons but conspicuously held at arms length

Government Limousines for the elite, bicycles for the piss-ants:

(CNSNews.com) – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced that federal transportation policies will no longer favor “motorized” transportation, such as cars and trucks, over “non-motorized” transportation, such as walking and bicycling.

LaHood signed the new policy directive on March 11, the same day he attended a congressional reception for the National Bike Summi

I suppose if suggested slashing the tires on LaHood’s government limousine, I’d be visited by the FBI.   However I am sure this jerk sure doesn’t walk or bicycle to work.

No Catholics need apply:

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration announced on Tuesday it has reserved 3,000 free tickets to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll for students in D.C.-area public and charter schools, but not for children who attend private or parochial schools

Hat tip:  Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin.

Tilly defends, Bart Sup(id)ak, kind of, sort of, “Stupak Is Not a Whore.”

Blondie in Canuckistan, Day Four, Kathy Shaidle, Five Feet of Fury:

Day Four:

Tonight, Ann Coulter speaks at the University of Calgary — her final stop on the tour.

As noted last night, the venue has been changed, to accomodate increased demand. Double check the details at the official CoulterInCanada.com site before you leave.

It is reassuring that the nation with whom we share the World”s longest undefended border is not totally inhabited by apologetic, politcally correct, liberal wimps.   Freedom does live in Canada.

Of course, the White House anticipates that the American people will learn to love this bill[Obama Care] so much that repeal will soon become politically impossible. In their view, seniors will learn to love the cuts to Medicare, small business owners will learn to love the employer mandate, and we will all learn to love the 16,000 IRS agents who will soon be enforcing all the new taxes and mandates. In truth, popular support for repeal has only begun to grow. Every person who loses their employer-based coverage, and every family that sees their premiums continue to rise, will join the repeal effort

Sen. John Cornyn, National Review.
.

Welcome back, my friends to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• 55% WANT HEALTHCARE REPEALED: I’ve already suggested earlier that an outright repeal of the healthcare monster isn’t likely and enumerated the reasons for that. I note today, Rick Moran has been talking about that also, and he takes a bit of a different angle I find interesting.  But most, according to Rasmissen, want the thing killed off.

• ROVE: REPEAL AND REFORM WILL BE A WINNING ISSUE COME FALL: Maybe so, Karl... but it’ll end up being the losing issue in 2012 if the GOP doesn’t break with it’s own history and actually work against an entitlement,  and I suspect they will not.

• STEYN AND COULTER: The video that David posted this morning had Ann invoking the name of Mark Steyn, and recalling the hate crimes perpetrated against him in Canada, all in the name of “justice” of course.  I knew it wasn’t going to be long before he waded into this particular cesspool, with his usual “take no prisoners” attitude.  God bless him, he’s spot on,here:
  

  “Alliances between the state’s ideological commissars and street mobs are a familiar feature of certain kinds of societies, and I suppose Canada will soon get used to its membership of this unlovely club. . . . What a wretched embarrassment to a once free society.”

  Steyn is correct, of course, it is an embarrassment.  It is also how far away from freedom we have come in the west.

• TIME OUT FOR THIS MESSAGE FROM TOM JEFFERSON:
  

  

  Thomas Jefferson

  God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …

  And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them.

  What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
  time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” – Thms Jefferson

  I happened across this quote while looking up something else. It amazes me as I compare this quote to the whining going on about “violent acts” and death threats as I mentioned earlier today,  against the Democrats, that those same Democrats still to this day hold Jefferson to be iconic for their party. Particularly given how it’s so obvious, given their whining, that they don’t understand him at all.

  And now, we see the office of Eric Cantor in Richmond got shot up last night.

  And it isn’t like this is new, or anything. Let the leftist waffling begin.

• WHY ASSUME IT’S TEA PARTY TYPES? A thought occurs; why is it we assume it’s tea party types that made these supposed death threats to Democrat members of the Congress? Consider that Stupak must have annoyed at least a few pro-life Democrats with his bait and switch. No, it’s the Tea Parties, eh?  Forgive me but I smell a fish, here.

• WHY WON’T THE LEFT ACKNOWLEDGE THE DEATH SPIRAL OF THE IRANIAN REGIME? Interesting read from Michael Ledeen He says:
  

  The Left lost its revolutionary vocation when it became the blind supporter of Communism.  The Leftists were unwilling to acknowledge that others had taken up the revolutionary cause.  To admit that was to confess that they were no longer a vanguard movement, that they no longer fought for the freedoms that had defined them for two hundred years, and that they in practice had become defenders of the status quo. Unable to admit the truth, they set about distorting the language lest the truth become obvious.

  I put that quote of Mike here, for a couple of reasons.  First because it makes an interesting parallel to my comments on the Jefferson quote.   It’s clear that the left has lost its linkage with Jefferson but it’s not altogether clear why, until such time as we examine their attitudes about revolution in other parts of the world.  In this case, I’m not convinced that Mike is spot on here.  Say rather that the left lost its revolutionary vocation when it became “the Man” that they were protesting for so long. Witness how many of the far left members of the SDS, The Weathermen, and so on, now infest the White House and both houses of Congress.  The reason they lost their revolutionary zeal their fight for freedom is because they are now the government.they are now the power.  Fighting for freedom thereby runs counter to their staying in power.

Joyner at OTB:

As many as ten Congressmen have allegedly received death threats over their votes on health care reform.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is warning that some of his Democratic colleagues are being threatened with violence when they go back to their districts — and he wants Republicans to stand up and condemn the threats.

The Maryland Democrat said more than 10 House Democrats have reported incidents of threats or other forms of harassment about their support of the highly divisive health insurance overhaul vote. Hoyer emphasized that he didn’t have a specific number of threats and that was just an estimate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Capitol Police and sergeant at arms briefed Democrats behind closed doors today about the incidents of violence — the most high profile of which have been toward Democratic Reps. Thomas Perriello of Virginia, Steve Driehaus of Ohio and Louise Slaughter of New York.

Hoyer hinted that Republicans should do more to condemn these threats of violence.  “I would hope that we would join together jointly and make it very clear that none of us condone this kind of activity,” Hoyer told reporters. “And when we see it, we speak out strongly in opposition to it. And I would hope that we would do that going forward.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the majority whip, said Democrats and Republicans should continue to speak out on these threats. “Silence gives consent,” Clyburn said.

But Minority Leader John Boehner already has condemned threats of violence — and sought to explain why people are so angry.  “I know many Americans are angry over this health care bill, and that Washington Democrats just aren’t listening,” Boehner said. “But, as I’ve said, violence and threats are unacceptable. That’s not the American way. We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change. Call your congressman, go out and register people to vote, go volunteer on a political campaign, make your voice heard — but let’s do it the right way.”

A Republican aide also pointed out that over the years Republican members of Congress received their fair share of death threats during volatile times. Newt Gingrich after the 1994 Republican revolution and the late Henry Hyde during the Clinton impeachment in 1998 both received numerous death threats. And just last month, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) received death threats after his filibuster of unemployment benefits, according to a report in Roll Call.

There have, alas, been some real incidents and some Members are, quite reasonably, frightened:

One Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Phil Hare of Illinois, said he knows several Democrats who have told their spouses to move out of the home districts while the lawmakers are in Washington.   “If this doesn’t get under control in short time, heaven forbid, someone will get hurt,” Hare said.

And House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters after a caucus meeting that members who feel in danger would “get attention from the proper authorities.”

Hare is holding eight town hall meetings in his district over the recess and requested that the Capitol Police coordinate with his local police department to provide security. His wife has pleaded with him to cancel the events.   “My wife is home alone, and I’m worried for her,” he said. “I am about to have my first grandchild. I don’t want to have to be worried.”

Incidents are sprouting up all over the country. The gas lines were cut at the house of Virginia Democratic Rep. Thomas Perriello’s brother, near Charlottesville, Va., prompting an FBI investigation.  Local police are making routine checks of the home. A tea party activist from southern Virginia posted online the address of Perriello’s brother, thinking it was the lawmaker’s.   Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) had his address posted on the Internet, with a message from a right-wing blogger asking people to show up at Driehaus’s Cincinnati “mansion” to protest his health care vote. A photo of Driehaus’s family appeared in a Cincinnati newspaper ad urging the lawmaker to vote against the health care bill last week.   A brick was thrown through the window of the Democratic Party’s Cincinnati office.   And Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who negotiated the breakthrough on abortion language in the health care bill, has received numerous death threats and faxes with violent images at his office.

OTB Regular Steve Plunk says:

One brick and one propane line on BBQ grill. So far that’s all the violence that it takes to make these congressmen shake in fear?

Well, really.  I say, over there:

I doubt the majority of what is being called “death threats” really are such; I suggest that what’s happening here is there using a relatively minor comment and blowing it out of proportion so as to use it like they would any other tool; to tar their political opponents with.

Meanwhile, I have cited over the past nine years or so that my site has been online, many instances of left on right threats and overt violence, which brought none of the condemnation from the left that we’re now seeing from the all too ready to apologize right. Why is that, do you suppose?

That said, there’s one additional point needs be made. That of the question of the legitimacy of such acts.

Mind, I make no judgments here nor calls to violence, but I will ask the question; I look at our own American revolution and the violent acts which gave birth to this nation. And, I wonder; at what point would such actions be considered legitimate, today? Would in fact our revolution be considered as legit today? I’ve seen many who think this nation should never have been founded while they reap the benefits of the violent overthrow of Brit rule.

Consider the words of Lincoln, in his first inaugural address:

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

Be careful when you answer the question about how legitimate an act of violence against the government is; You will, perhaps, in your answer inadvertently delegitimize the founding of our nation. Or, perhaps not so inadvertently, some of you.

I can’t wait to see what responses that one brings…. LOL

Bart even more Stup(id)ak than thought, from Fox News:

President Obama signed the Senate health care bill into law Tuesday. He did not sign the executive order on abortion negotiated with Michigan Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak in an 11th-hour arrangement that may well have saved the entire health care reform effort.

A White House official told Fox, Obama will not sign the Executive Order Tuesday and has set no specific date to do so. Stupak predicted Obama would sign the order later this week. The White House said only that Obama would sign the order “soon.”

Dumb Bart cashed it all for a mere promise by Obama to sign an executive order.   The same president who promised a middle class tax cut but instead delivered the largest tax increase in our history.

Another stupid democrat,  from Dr. Milton R. Wolf, Wolf  Files:

REP DENNIS MOORE (D-KS) FINALLY CORNERED. ADMITS NOT READING BILL: Dennis Moore, appearing on KMBZ radio Kansas City Morning News with EJ & Ellen, was finally forced to answer one of my questions. Ellen asks:

I was reading this article in the Washington Times by Dr. Milton Wolf who is a Kansas radiologist. You know, I think he actually talked to you and contacted your office. He writes that there’s “a scheme in this bill” that “actually penalizes your primary care physician if he is in the top 10 percent of doctors who refer patients to specialists, no matter how valid the reason.” That brings up questions of rationing. That brings up questions of quality health care. Is that still in there?

Moore answers:

I don’t know. And I will find out. But I don’t know if that’s in there. This is, as you know, a multi-hundred, several hundred pages of bill, but uh, uh, I’ll check with Dr. Wolf directly too and talk to him and find out what, what, what his concern is because I don’t know that.

What arrogance or blind ideology compels a man to allow the government takeover of the finest health care delivery system in the world without even reading the bill?

Hat tip;  Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.

I suspect none of Mrs. Pelosi’s co-conspirators actually read the bill.   Do you really think any congressman as dumb as Dennis Moore or Mrs. Pelosi should be in charge of your health care?

Steny Hoyer feels threatened,Michael O’Brien, Hill:

House Democratic and Republican leaders have conferred to discuss a response to a “significant” number of threats against lawmakers.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that he, along with Democratic and Republican leaders, have discussed new security precautions that lawmakers should take after a spike in threats to lawmakers following a controversial healthcare vote this past weekend.

Well so do I, video:

Hat tip: William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection.

Dan Riehl, Riehl World View, responds

To be clear, I don’t advocate violence against elected officials in America. That said, what would GOP officials standing up and condemning it have to do with anything?  Is this just political grandstanding from Steny? It sure sounds like it.

What’s a matter, Steny? You folks were high-fiving it all around immediately after acting like complete tyrants forcing a bill down the throat of Americans who told you repeatedly how much they didn’t want it. You certainly looked and sounded tough enough then. Now, you cowards are afraid to go back to your districts and face the voters? Why am I not surprised.

Dan when the state is making threats to control three hundred million citizens, it is better considered as self-defense.   Well the Federal Bureau of Investigation respond to Congress” threat to personal liberty?   I think not.

Blondie does Canada, video:

Hat tip:  Kathy Shaidle. Five Feet of Fury.

Participants applaud in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, where President Barack Obama, flanked by Macelas Owens of Seattle, left, and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., right, signs the health care bill. Behind the president, from left are, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., Vice President Joe Biden, Vicki Kennedy, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., Ryan Smith of Turlock, Calif., Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Md., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., House Majority Whip James Clyburn of S.C., and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

I count seventeen persons in the picture, fifteen criminals, one widow of a dead criminal, and one prop, to wit Macelas Owens.    The moron in chief kept repeating the health care reform was  need for the children.   Yet the only child in the picture, is the only person not guaranteed coverage by Obama Care.    Maybe if represents like Nancy Pelosi and Louise Slaughter had bothered to actually read the bill before they voted on it this mess could have been avoided.    The same if TOTUS has bothered to read the bill before he signed it, from Ricardo Alomso0-Zaldivar, AP

WASHINGTON — Hours after President Barack Obama signed historic health care legislation, a potential problem emerged. Administration officials are now scrambling to fix a gap in highly touted benefits for children.

Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday

The same morons too stupid to even stage a farking photo op, think they are smart enough to manage one sixth of our economy, from  Mary Katherine Ham, Weekly Standard:

Making sure kids who have pre-existing conditions are covered? Hard to argue with that. There’s just one problem. In the writing of this bill that manipulates 1/6 of the American economy, the wise men and women of the United States Congress somehow overlooked making sure kids with pre-existing conditions were covered:

No wonder the people that actually wrote the bill, made sure to exempt themsleves from the provisions of Obama Care, from Moe Lane:

Also: Obama’s public statements have also conveyed the equally-false impression that the President has a clue about what’s actually in his signature legislation, but you can’t really expect the AP to write that out.  Although one gets the impression that the thought might have actually passed through the head of the writer.  Which would be an improvement, at least.

Sleep well tonight.  Your government is in charge.

The problem still hasn’t been solved.  Some time a go, I wrote a piece about President Obama’s biggest concern.  At least, it should be his biggest concern, because if this particular issue is not addressed, it will go well for Republicans in November, and again in November 2012.

It’s been three days since the “historic” “landmark” legislation socializing the health care industry.  Much has been written about it already.  My objective today is to address economic issues, and the elephant in the room that gets little attention is…drumroll, please…Jobs!

That’s right, employment is the key to the whole ball of wax.  President Obama and his minions just created a tremendous amount of uncertainty.  When there is uncertainty, employers conserve resources.  When they conserve resources, they tend to forgo filling positions.  In addition, tax rates in Medicaid and capital gains were increased, creating a further drag on economic growth, spending, and as a result, aggregate demand.  And right now, the economy needs aggregate demand to create jobs.

So with the real unemployment rate hovering around 17%, it may not seem like such a good idea to act in such as way as to dampen economic growth.  We hear a lot from this president.  He may be the most verbose President in the last 50 years (where is Silent Cal when you need him?), and he talks a good game about jobs.  But the reality is, everything he has implemented or proposed is a job-killer.  And that is a record that any Republican could easily run against.

Welcome, one and all, to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the web: The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

the

• HANNAH AND THE ACORNers: Hannah Giles files a kick in the butt for ACORN as they slither away. I’ve said it for years all that’s needed to keep this kind of thing in check is serious investigation. Something the leftist press refuses to do.
• LIKE TO KICK HIS EGO JUST ONCE: Kaus asks:
  

  Who’s the guy assigned to keep Obama’s ego in check?

  The American Voter, Mickey. He’s the only one big enough to check that big an ego.

• JAMES AND THE FIOA: Al Gore’s longtime “adviser” .. James Hansen… with his taxpayer funded job, apparently doesn’t like that the public has a right to know. Chris Horner explains.
• KIM JUNG REALLY ILL: The little gargoyle running North Korea has chronic kidney failure. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving despot.
• HOPE AND CHANGE: New home sales are at record lows.
• MAYBE HERE”S THE REASON: Americans in overwhelming numbers think Obama policies are pushing our nation to an economic collapse.
• CHINA IS STILL AT IT: We’re still getting cyber attacks from China.
• UNICEF BOYCOTTS ISRAEL? Apparently so. Why are we still supporting UNICEF?
• GO FOR IT, ANN! So the left wing thugs were out in force trying to shut down all discu
  

  Ann Coulter

  ssion… why? Because Ann Coulter was to speak. Stacy’s got a lot on this one. I gather from a few sources she’s filed a hate crime complaint. Using their own tools against them. Cute.

• DO I CALL THIS STUFF? The eye pointed out yesterday that the history ofthe thing is that there has never been an entitlement that the Republicans have overturned.  On that history, I made a prediction that they probably were going to overturn health care either.  Not in total, and certainly not as being bandied about by many on the right just now.  As if I’m few, along comes Cornyn, as reported by the Huff  & Puff saying that the Republicans wouldn’t be going for a repeal of all the health care that Obama has inflicted on us.  Of course, this is cause for no small amount of celebration on the left side of the sphere.  The argument about this now appears to center around whether not his comments were taken out of context. I agree that’s plausible.  You’ll pardon me if I’m less than optimistic about Healthcare being repealed.  Frankly, I think the republicans would do very well to make this thing a central issue.  Promises, in “Contract with America” style to eliminate this monster that Obama has foisted off on us.  It’s my view the republicans would win hands down.  But they won’t risk such a move, and I suspect it’s because they don’t really believe in moving us away from the socialism recently inflicted on us. And of course they’re so afraid that they won’t be seen as “being bipartisan’.  it’s too bad that the majority of them haven’t learned the lesson from 2008, these of the the presidential candidacy of John McCain, who was famous for doing such.