Nightly Ramble Wednesday

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

• BUGGING? MAYBE NOT… I’ve looked at the affidavit again about the supposed ‘bugging’ of Mary Landrieu’s office, that I mentioned this morning, and it’s become clear to me that isn’t in the charges. So what are these people being charged with?   Update: Patterico comes to the same point and says so this morning. He also indicates that the source of the WaPo story is Carol D Leoning, who has a bit of history with O’Keefe… slandering him as regards the ACORN thing.
• OBAMAGIRL NOT IN LOVE ANYMORE: So reports Jammie Wearing Fool
• SPYKER’S SAAB STORY:  As I told you the Saab sale to Spyker went through after all.
• RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT…. ONE WAY OR THE OTHER:Jennifer Rubin:
  

  And that, I think, is the real impact of the polls and the Democratic departures/retirements: those struggling not to be swept out in the 2010 wave will increasingly look at each and every vote through the prism of their own electorate and re-election self-interest. Yes, what a novel concept! But that was not the story in 2009, when congressmen and senators were persuaded over and over again to ignore everything else (e.g., polls, town hall attendees, jammed switchboards) and adhere to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi line. That dynamic is very likely to reverse itself — leaving the “leadership” to chase after members, while members attune themselves to voters back home.

  Mmmmmpppfhfhfh. While I tend to agree that the effort will be there to appear more responsive to the electorate, (politics, after all, is nothing but appearances, from a Progressive’s point of view) to the fact remains that the pursuit of the progressive agenda will continue unabated.  A look at Mr. Obama and his late in coming, and overtly populist stance in response to voter anger is the key evidence, here.  That and 60 years worth of Democrat party history. I’ll tell you what, though, Jennifer; I’m beginning to see the termination of a split among the Democrat party.  It may not happen immediately , because the left is generally speaking more pragmatic that is good for them, but such a split must eventually come .  The split will be down the lines between the progressives, and the mainstream portion of the Democrat party.

• FOX IS THE MOST TRUSTED: A showing that Fox News is the most trusted news network in the country. Meanwhile, Newsday is licking its wounds after only 35 people signed up for the privilege of paying for their content.  Newsflash to the New York Times: Baybe you guys on a rethink this stuff ?   I’m willing to bet that if Fox were to go to Pay for Content, they have enough to support themselves.  On the other hand, since they’re getting enough in advertising revenue these days, they probably don’t feel the need to go strictly pay for play.  Is the message here that where we get our news content from his a matter of trust, not a matter of who pays for it?  Is the message here that if the people actually trusted the New York Times for example, they wouldn’t be in the revenue slump they’re in? Just sayin’….

Dan Riehl at Pajamas Media this morning:

Conservative activist James O’Keefe has been arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Service for allegedly attempting to bug the offices of U..S. Senator Mary Landrieu. Also arrested were Robert Flanagan, the son of a federal prosecutor, and two others.

O’Keefe and partner Hannah Giles rose to fame for a video sting against the community activist group ACORN. The videos appeared on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website. According to a report on Twitter, Big Government’s editors claim to have had no knowledge of events in Louisiana.

From Sister Toldja:

I  can’t really add much more to what Michelle Malkin has said about the arrest of James O’Keefe, one half of the ACORN-exposing tag team, who – along with three other alleged “conservative activists – was arrested yesterday on charges of attempting to wiretap Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office.

I fully believe in the concept of innocent until proven guilty, but the case against O’Keefe is pretty damning and all around it’s just a sad, disappointing story. Not only is it (obviously) wrong to try and wiretap someone’s office (that is, unless you’re an Islamofascist with known ties to terrorist outfits hell-bent on killing westerners), but of course the left and the MSM will try and probably be successful at using this story to detract from the real issues O’Keefe’s stings of the various ACORN offices brought to light.

I don’t think there’s any doubt in the world about that one.  Indeed, they’re already doing it. Indeed, they have become nothing short of apoplectic.

The thing of it is; we’d be seeing an awful lot of praise for such as O’Keefe coming out of the left, if for example the office of Tim Pawlenty, or (chukle) Scott Brown, were the target.  I think it telling that Sis already made reference to  a tape of a phone conversation that made it’s way around the wires a few years ago… that incident wasn’t perpetrated by the news media, but was perpetrated by a sitting congressman.  A Democrat, of course.  guy you remember the reaction to that one?  I seem to recall comments from the left to the effect  that every revolution in history has been accomplished by what were in reality illegal acts.  They all argued that breaking the law was for the greater good.  Remember? And of course, a logical extension to that argument is that the government will use the law, however crafted, as a tool to remain in power, regardless of the will of the people.  If you think for a while you’ll remember that one, too.

There’s going to be an awful lot of smoke being sent up by the Democrats on this one.  The attempt, in short, will be to obscure what’s really going on here.   See, I can’t help but think that the resulting trial is going to reveal far more about Mary Landrieu than she would be comfortable with.

Here’s why I think so:

Let’s take this independent of the morality question for just a moment.  It seems reasonable to assume that there was some lawbreaking going on here.  And also seems reasonable to assume that somebody who demonstrated such intelligence in the ACORN affiar does not simply go in tapping phones on a fishing expedition. You go in knowing that there’s something there to uncover, or you simply don’t take that risk.

I have to assume that there is far more to this story than we know at the moment.  Personally, I will be most interested in seeing what it is that O’Keefe has on Landrieu…And I fully expect that to come out in the trial.  Which, the way things time out will come out just about the time that we are due for another election.

As to whether not all the charges will hold up, I’ll reserve judgment.  I’ve read the affidavit, I’m less than convinced that they will hold up, frankly, but then again, this is the Democrat party stronghold of New Orleans, where you can not only indict a ham sandwich you can convict it if you like, and have some political clout.

I will also warn you, that the mainstream media will tend to ignore anything that surfaces about corruption and Sen. Mary Landrieu… after all, corrupt Democrats , particularly in that part of the country, are hardly news.

On the other hand, the story might serve as a decent diversion from the rather lackluster state of the union message that we anticipate this evening.

From radio buddy Scott Fybush,  on Northeast Radio Watch, on Monday:

*The final collapse of New York-based Air America Radio made big industry headlines at week’s end, but the bankruptcy liquidation of the pioneering progressive talk network won’t affect many timeslots on any NERW-land radio stations. There were no full-time Air America affiliates in the region, and hadn’t been for several years, and even in New York Air America was only being cleared for a few hours a day on nominal flagship WWRL (1600): Montel Williams’ mid-morning show was delayed to 3-6 PM, followed by Ron Reagan Jr. from 6-8 PM, and three overnight hours were filled with a delayed Rachel Maddow rebroadcast and “Clout with Richard Greene.” There’s no word yet on what programming will now be heard during those hours on WWRL.

Ithaca’s WNYY (1470) was carrying Air America’s Lionel in morning drive, and has now replaced him with Dial Global’s Bill Press. The only other weekday AA shows on WNYY were an hour of Norman Goldman at night, replaced by Montel Williams, and an hour of Rachel Maddow early in the morning, replaced by the Wall Street Journal This Morning show.

In Buffalo, WWKB (1520) wasn’t using any of Air America’s weekday shows in its lineup (a relic of the brief competition between ‘KB and former AA affiliate WHLD 1270 a few years back), but it will have to replace some of the weekend programming it was getting from the now-defunct network.

Well, forgive me, if I don’t actually mourn the passage of that bastion of non-thought… the radio network that gave us such quotes as:

“The entire Bush crime family should be executed.”

Oh… and…

“Bush and Cheney are gleefully causing gas prices to go sky high to benefit their big oil friends.”

Oh… and…. Oh, never mind. You get the idea.

The  Obama administration year long effort to demonize Fox News has achieved results,
from  Tom Jensen, Public Policy Polling:

Americans do not trust the major tv news operations in the country- except for Fox News.

Our newest survey looking at perceptions of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News finds Fox as the only one that more people say they trust than distrust. 49% say they trust it to 37% who do not.

Allah Pundit, Hot Air:

Number one in all of cable during primetime last week, by the way. Note: Not all of cable news. All of cable.

Jennifer Rubin, Commentary;

This will certainly be unwelcome news to the White House, but it is also further evidence that the Obama administration may have the ability to lift its enemies to new heights of popularity. Perhaps all that vilification from the White House demonstrated that Fox wasn’t the patsy of the administration. Or maybe viewers can judge for themselves — and have long since tuned out the advice of the White House on everything from health care to which news outlet they should watch.

It is certainly one more bit of evidence that the White House is out of touch with the public and that its spin has ceased to move public opinion (at least in the intended direction).

Now Eric,  just how do we get Bobby Gibbs to demonize us at his next press briefing?

Welcome dear reader to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• SPENDING FREEZE: So Obama’s response to the anger he’s generated, is that he claims he wants a spending freeze on “many” domestic programs, says the New York Times:
  

  WASHINGTON — President Obama will call for a three-year freeze in spending on many domestic programs, and for increases no greater than inflation after that, an initiative intended to signal his seriousness about cutting the budget deficit, administration officials said Monday.
  The officials said the proposal would be a major component both of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday and of the budget he will send to Congress on Monday for the fiscal year that begins in October.
  The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks.

  Yeah, well, look at the rest of the details, as well:

  The officials said the proposal would be a major component both of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday and of the budget he will send to Congress on Monday for the fiscal year that begins in October.

  The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks.

  Well, now if Obama says it it means it’s suspect right out of his mouth. So, parse the statements even a little and you’ see that the thing they don’t mention is that at what level they will be frozen If that seems needlessly critical, please consider the idea that we’ve just gone through the biggest spending increase in history.  If in fact the spending is being frozen at that level, where is the savings?

  Republicans were quick to mock the freeze proposal. “Given Washington Democrats’ unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for the House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio.

  Well, precisely.  If Obama really thinks he’s going to be able to regain his polling numbers with this little maneuver, those inconvenient facts are going to jump up and bite him in the back side again.
  There is this, also ; the spending reductions and he’s talking about would have to be agreed to by members of his own party in Congress, a party which has heretofore never been able to agree to any reductions whatsoever other than what reductions they were pleased to force on to the military prior to 9/11/01.  Indeed, the far left is already raising hell about ANY cuts in governmental largess. Let’s just say the odds don’t look good for that happening.
  And should we mention?  Oh, I guess we can …. that candidate Obama was loudly critical of the idea of a spending freeze when John McCain suggested it not so very long ago….
  

  Now, I told you fourteen months ago when this moron got elected that he was going to be forced into facing reality .  That takes none of the giggles of actually seeing it happen.

• ELLIE LIGHT: The mystery of Elle Light would seem to have been solved… maybe. She appeared on 1210/WPHT this monring during Mike Smirconish’s show and suggested she’s a healthcare worker who moves around a lot.  (Sorry I Was in the truck at the time, plus it was a weak signal this morning here in Western NY state)  Plasable statements and even comical given the healthcare connection, I suppose. But still, revealing of a lie at the center. Why is it that Obama supporters feel they ahve to do that in their support of him?   (Update I see Ben Smith has more, including audio. )
• CHARLES JOHNSON SAGA: Dennis Prager has some comments and advice for Johnson. MMCT to Prager, because he managed to put into words what I didn’t have the patience to express. He goes a little easier opn Johnson than I think is warranted, particularly as regards Stacy McCain,  but it’s worth a read none the less.
• HEY, BARRY? YA FORGOT AN OPTION
  
  Once again Doctor Krauthammer justifies my respect for him.
• HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Belated Happy Birthday to Rick Moran of the Right Wing Nuthouse and Pajamas Media.

Comment by Jammie Wearing Fool:

White House

Obama Reflects On His Favorite Subject

Barack Obama is trying to sell his favorite subject, to wit himself, Glenn Thrush, Politico:

Rep. Marion Berry’s parting shot, published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette [no link, subscription only] offers a warning to moderate Democrats and border state moderates — warning of a midterm bloodbath comparable to the 54-seat D-to-R swing in 1994.

But the jaw-dropper is Berry’s claim that President Obama personally dismissed any comparison between Democrats now and under Bill Clinton 16 years ago — by saying his personal popularity would bail everybody out.

Yes Obama was selling, but Marion Berry wasn’t buying.

Yid with Lid:

The term “Obamessiah” has been used frequently to joke about the adoration of the POTUS displayed by his supporters. According to retiring Democratic Party Congressman Marion Berry, the President actually believes his clippings.

While B.J. Clinton is a man of dubious,  if any, moral character,  Clinton exercised considerable political skill.   As noted,  Clinton was the only democrat re-elected President in the second half of the previous century, Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard:

Well, in ’94 they had Bill Clinton–who had won statewide in a pretty conservative state (Arkansas) something like seven times, and who was the fourth challenger in the 20th century to oust an incumbent elected president, following in the footsteps on Wilson, FDR, and Reagan. Clinton got on the wrong side of the voters in ’94, but recovered and was the first Democrat re-elected to the presidency since FDR. Judging from this comment, unless Obama’s instinct for self-preservation overcomes his egotism, and his ambition subordinates his narcissism, Obama won’t be the second.

As for Obama’s considerable personal popularity, what would governors  Jon Corzine, Creighton Deeds and Senator-elect Martha Coakley have to say on the subject?

Note from the White House:

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

So noted.

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

• SIGNS OF ANOTHER ATTACK? Drudge seems to think so.
• IS THERE A BIGGER IDIOT THAN JOE KLEIN? Well, there may possibly be such a  critter, but I tend to doubt it after reading his output of this morning. Klein gives us a good picture of the frustrated progressive:
  

  Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787 stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted. On second thought, they may be right: it’s been wasted on them. Indeed, the largest single item in the package–$288 billion–is tax relief for 95% of the American public. This money is that magical $60 to $80 per month you’ve been finding in your paycheck since last spring. Not a life changing amount, but helpful in paying the bills.

  No, you moron…  First of all, it’s not big enough in reality… there’s that word again…  reality…. to help most Americans at all, particularly when Liberal policy has become such a demonstrated job killer. . And secondly with the amount of spending going on most Americans are smart enough to understand that the bill’s gonna come due.

  The next highest amount was $275 billion in grants and loans to states. This is why your child’s teacher wasn’t laid off…and why the fire station has remained open, and why you’re not paying even higher state and local taxes to close the local budget hole.

  So that’s where all your job savings are coming from? Government jobs, and jobs which in the largest number are unionized?  Yeah, big help. Shut up, sit down over there in the corner with the pointed hat, Klein. You’re too stupid to bother with.

• ASTROTURF:  Patterico has a summary of what we’ve learned about the astroturf campaign I wrote about the other day, involving “Ellie Light”
• THE SEX TAPE: George Carlin used to say that if you mail to boards together in a way that’s never been done before, sure as hell, some schmuck will buy it.   So I suppose it must be for reports that John Edwards has a sex tape.  Yeah, you got it right… Wouldn’t it be a gas if the guy stopped every two seconds to brush his hair?
• HOW LAME CAN PRESIDENT TELEPROMPTER GET?:  Can someone pleeeassssseeee explain to me why Obama feels the need to bring a  teleprompter to speak to a  6th grade class? Is the president of the united states that incapable of independent thought?  Does he figured the sixth grade classes going to be hitting him with questions he won’t be able to answer without the political impact?  Or is it that he’s just so scared of being a deeper hole with his mouth, already? One of Dan Riehl’s readers  looks at this one and says:
  

  What is even more disturbing than the need to whip TOTUS out to talk to school kids is the purpose of Obama’s visit to that school. He was announcing his desire to put billions more into hisprogram “Race to the Top” (RttT in Obamaland cutespeak) and also create a means for school districts to bypass the authority of their State Boards of Education in order to apply for federal RttT funds. What is so disturbing about this? One of the requirements of winning this federal grant money is that local school districts must contractually agree to adopt federal curriculum guidelines, even those that have not yet been defined by the Obama Administration. Yup….the federal core curriculum issue rears its ugly head again.
  Obama created the local school district bypass to these federal dollars in response to Rick Perry’s decision for Texas to opt out. Obama can’t stand Perry and the State of Texas….and was not about yield the chess board

  The point is taken. With all that, maybe we now understand why Obama would want to be very controlled indeed in what he says. It’d be interesting to see how much of that was contained in what he told the students, and how uch was hidden or ignored.

• OBAMA’S VERSION OF GROWTH: Poverty rate hits 17.5% in Nashville. Meanwhile, December home sales are off by 17%… that’s a 40 year low. Yet the Democrat party answer is to blame Bush.

Representative Carol Shea-Porter ( New Hampshire – One)  opens mouth,  inserts foot, video:

But no.  No, Rep. Shea-Porter actually just fell out of the Stereotypes about Women tree, and hit every branch on the way down.

Moe Land.

I used to think we could never replace Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who kept us entertained during her 12-year stint in Congress.

Shea-Porter is a contender.

Don Surber.

Dam leather shoes.   Without shoes, women would  have to stay home, get pregnant and cook.

David L

From SPOOK86 at In From The Cold:

President Obama’s poll numbers are in free-fall, but he still has at least one “citizen” who ardently defends him, in the letters section of your local paper.

We refer to one Ellie Light, who has published the same letting supporting Obama in at least 42 newspapers in 18 states–and claimed residence in most of those locations.

In fact, tracking Ms. Light’s letter-writing campaign has become something of a crusade for a few bloggers and independent-minded journalists. Among the MSM, Sabrina Eaton of the Cleveland Plain Dealer was one of the first to identify Light’s one-woman astroturf campaign. By her count, Ms. Light has published similar letters supporting Obama in more than a dozen publications. In most cases, she listed her residence as a city in the paper’s circulation area.

“It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the Jan. 19 edition of The Philadelphia Daily News.

A letter from Light in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Francisco Examiner concluded with an identical sentence, but with an address for Light all the way across the country in Daly City, California.

Variations of Light’s letter ran in Ohio’s Mansfield News Journal on Jan. 13, with Light claiming an address in Mansfield; in New Mexico’s Ruidoso News on Jan. 12, claiming an address in Three Rivers; in South Carolina’s The Sun News on Jan. 18, claiming an address in Myrtle Beach; and in the Daily News Leader of Staunton, Virginia on Jan. 15, claiming an address in Waynesboro. Her publications list includes other papers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, all claiming separate addresses.

Ms. Eaton also reports that Light sent her a similar missive in mid-January, about the time the letter writing campaign began. Light has also refused to answer questions from the Plain Dealer reporter about her publishing efforts and all those different residences.

Personally, I began to suspect that what’s going on here is a concerted effort on the part of some union, or perhaps on the part of ACORN to pass this off as “grass roots”.  The fact is, I wouldn’t put it past any group supporting Obama , but it would certainly be interesting to trace back who is involved.

As an example; how is it that no mention is made in any of the articles on this subject of the postmark in which these letters were supposedly mailed?  If they were E-mailed , how was it that nobody has looked at the mail headers which would clearly reveal the point of origin?  Clearly, the attempt is being made on the part of someone or, likely, several someones that Obama has far more support than he really has.  What is, after all, the Obama “grown government” campaign (which is always ongoing) but a bandwagon argument, writ large?

Patterico in the article Spook links, adds a crumb of info to this mess…

On an unrelated note, recall that recently, Glenn Greenwald flagged the fact that Obama’s pal (and head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs) Cass Sunstein recently wrote this paper suggesting something sounding a lot like Astroturfing:

Sunstein advocates that the Government’s stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups.” He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called “independent” credible voices to bolster the Government’s messaging (on the ground that those who don’t believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government).

And there’s this, also; does anybody truly think that this is the only effort at presenting Obama as having more support than he actually does?   There is, I fear, something uncomfortable in all of this, something alarmingly similar to the efforts of Joseph Goebbels, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Casto, and Stalin, to name but a few.

Cass Sunstein using the tactics of Joe Goebbels. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

And,  leave it to Greenwald to support such tactics.

I was interviewed by InfoWorld for the following article on Cloud Computing:

Software developers gladly hop on the cloud bandwagon
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/software-developers-gladly-hop-cloud-bandwagon-026

Thanks to the author, Paul Krill and to HARO!

Maybe if Overbite had not gone to ag school, he might know something:

“This is a Supreme Court-sanctioned murder of what little actual democracy is left in this democracy. It is government of the people, by the corporations, for the corporations. It is the Dark Ages. It is our Dred Scott.”

Video:

The two most horrid decision in Supreme Court history are: two,  Dred Scott andone,  Roe v. Wade.  In Scott, the court ruled that the Negro had no right that need be recognized.  In Roe, the court ruled that living breathing human beings had no right to life prior to birth.`

Hat tip transcript:  Robert Stacy McCain,  The Other McCain.

Dodd Harris over at OTB makes the excellent point that:

At the core, corporations are just human constructs. We invented them to further our own purposes. They exist as concepts rather than physical objects, but have no more or less moral agency than any other human invention. Just as a gun or a piece of paper are, in and of themselves, neither moral nor immoral but can be used either way, so too are corporate entities morally neutral. It suits the purposes of people as individuals to concatenate into corporations.

I tell him…

It has always struck me as odd that those on the left spend so much of their time catering and kissing the backsides of various favored groupings of individuals, such as a race a gender or a sexual orientation, and yet do consider that corporations… which are in fact groups of individuals just like those they favor… have fewer rights than those they favor. And yes, I consider that groupings based on race a gender or a sexual orientation, are human constructs as well.

Maybe, just maybe, in the end, it’s just because private corporations do not fit in with the neo-socialist mantra?

I would add a question; What makes Unions more moral than corporation in the eyes of the left, hmmm?

I spent this monring hunting around for things related to my new job and in that process, found a wonderful montage called “A Trucker’s View Of America” that I thought I’d share with you.

It’s occurred to me that I might do well to try and post pics of what I see out on the road, as well, though I don’t know as I’d ever do quite as well as some of these.

Ben Claw, Talking Points Memo, sums up Barack Obama year, 2009, on healtcare:

Well folks, it’s been one year since President Barack Obama took office. And he spent a lot of that year working on health care reform.

Correction Ben,  Obama did not spend a lot time in Aught Nine working on health care, he spent a lot time talking about it.    Roll the video:

More to the point, Obama did not talk about health care reform.    Rather Obama talked about the time, and he talked about it a lot.    Obama said the process would be open.  It was not.   He said the plan would include everybody.  It does nott.   He said the plan would lower costs.   It does not.   He said that it would improve care.   It would not.   Obama said you  could keep your current coverage.   You would not be so able.   In short Obama talked a lot, but said little.    Further, what he said was simply not true.

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

• IDIOCY SQUARED: I mentioned in last night’s Ramble that the Democrats are busy avoiding the real issue… and used that blithering moron Krugman as the example target. :
  

  But even Krugman can’t bring himself to admit the real problem is not the person but the policy.

  Krugman himself confirms his absolute  cluelessness on the point today:

  A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.
  Tuesday’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election means that Democrats can’t send a modified health care bill back to the Senate. That’s a shame because the bill that would have emerged from House-Senate negotiations would have been better than the bill the Senate has already passed. But the Senate bill is much, much better than nothing. And all that has to happen to make it law is for the House to pass the same bill, and send it to President Obama’s desk.

  Krugman once again demonstrates to the world that he hasn’t a half a clue, or perhaps half a care, about the will of the people. Voters. Those little speed bumps to the neo-socialist agenda. You remember, voters, right Paul?    Gallup:

  PRINCETON, NJ — In the wake of Republican Scott Brown’s victory in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, the majority of Americans (55%) favor Congress’ putting the brakes on its current healthcare reform efforts and considering alternatives that can obtain more Republican support. Four in 10 Americans (39%) would rather have House and Senate Democrats continue to try to pass the bill currently being negotiated in conference committee.

  The public has been sending this message right along… stop the healthcare bill. Despite the will of the people, Krugman, like the good little progressive he is, continues to march under the red flag.Don’t it figure?

• SPEAKING OF HEALTHCARE: Mickey Kaus  writes:
  

  

  Kaus

  Congressman Raul Grijalva–co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus–must be a great source for the liberal healthbloggers in the TPM/TNR/Whippersnapper axis. He’s now dramatically announced that he can’t vote for the Senate’s health care bill–“It does not add up to an improvement in our health care system”–and proposed a complicated two-step alternative that would require the Senate to pass a bill he prefers via the “reconciliation” process, to be followed by a “handful of popular regulatory measures.” Yet liberal health reform proponents–who routinely point out that a) the Senate bill is a huge improvement and b) the reconciliation and piecemeal alternatives are unworkable–somehow seem to spare Grijalva the scorn he deserves.Under the Ezra Klein Standard, shouldn’t Grijalva be condemned for being “willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people”? I think yes!

  So do I, Mickey, so do I. .Clearly, there is a double standard in play here.  Not that that’s anything new for the Neo-socialist Progressives.

  

  'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This healthcare takeover is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX HEALTHCARE BILL!

  Kaus goes on to express the belief that the statement is exactly the kind of CYA you expect from politicians who recognize that their stated goals are going to happen and who still want to be seen as the agendas greatest proponents.  It’s a thought that the merits serious consideration.  If it’s true, it appears even the progressives in Congress understand in a way that Paul Krugman does not that what he and the rest of the ultra far left is beating on is now an ex- horse.

• HEY, HOLDER: ABOUT THIS FRUIT OF THE BOOM GUY… Do you REALLY mean to tell me  you consider (note I didn’t say ‘think’ Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is an everyday criminal?  Most people don’t. Says Byron York today:
  

  After all, Abdulmutallab was trained by al Qaeda, equipped with an al Qaeda-made bomb, and dispatched by al Qaeda to bring down the airliner and its 278 passengers. Even though the Obama administration has mostly abandoned the term “war on terror,” the president himself has said clearly that the United States is at war with al Qaeda. So who decided to treat Abdulmutallab as a civilian, read him the Miranda warning, and provide him with a government-paid lawyer — giving him the right to remain silent and denying the United States potentially valuable intelligence that might have been gained by a military-style interrogation?

  Look, gang, this goes directly to what I said in my most recent Pajamas Media article:

  The bottom line is that, like the Clinton administration, the Obama administration has approached al-Qaeda’s war on us thinking that it could be contained and dealt with in the civilian criminal justice system. We don’t, in other words, need to treat this as a war. We may or may not have returned officially to the Gorelick policy, but we returned to the attitude which gave us the policy when we put Democrats back in charge of the executive branch.

  Granted that two data points may not prove a trend, but there’s one more puzzle piece on this line: 9/11 wasn’t the first attack on the World Trade Center. The first one occurred under Bill Clinton in 1993. Starting a war was exactly al-Qaeda’s purpose then. Despite this, Bill Clinton decided to not treat it as a war. Instead, the perpetrators of that attack were considered to be a band of outlaws to be dealt with by our criminal justice system and diplomacy.

  The Gorelick wall is directly consistent with that attitude. Clinton hailed the arrest and conviction of the masterminds involved with that 1993 plot and apparently considered it a closed case, ignoring the larger network of thugs still poised and equipped to attack us. The overall feeling projected by the White House was that we didn’t need worry about terrorism anymore, because we’d made an example of the criminals we managed to catch. Certainly this made Clinton’s leftist base feel good and made him popular enough among his base to win a second term. But I daresay that the second World Trade Center attack on 9/11 was the direct result of that mistaken approach and that, obviously, terrorism had not been contained by Clinton’s approach.

  The Democrats didn’t learn from that mistake. That point was driven home soundly when President Obama tried to mimic Bill Clinton’s strategy on terrorism, and the results were predictable. The only reason that they didn’t have to pick pieces of plane and people out of the tarmac in Detroit is because the detonator failed.

  But the lack of proper treatment for this prisoner, the lack of correct interrogation, is also directly consistent with the Gorelick wall.  This incredibly stupid maneuver was caused by the underlying attitude that I spoke of in that article.  This is not a matter of a lack of leadership.  It’s simply the democrats are leading us in the wrong direction… and to our destruction.

• THE DATE IS SET:  (GOING FROM IT to TT) For those who don’t know, I have spent the last (nearly) 20 years in IT. I did well, too. The most recent economic downturn, however, (thank you, Democrats!) forced me to seek a more stable career than what IT has turned into of late.   I’ve decided to try my hand at long-haul trucking. Money ends up being about the same.  I went to a school to get my CDL and I have as of this week passed all my driving tests, and I will be in Wisconsin on Groundhog day (2/2) for orientation at my new job.
  

  My new career

  I will probably be leaving at least 24 hours before that.  That’s because all of the paperwork has been signed, the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed to get me working in the new job.  I most likely will not be writing this Nightly Ramble for at least a month following the end of January.  That’s because all I will have in the way of network access to use whatever I happen to stumble across in the offices, and what little network connectivity my smart phone gives me.  Following that, I will obtain my own laptop with an air card and we’ll be posting rather a lot, I should think.  It has been suggested that I should seriously consider changing the name of this blog to something more reflective of my new career, since it was originally named for my old one.  I’m giving that serious consideration, but no ideas come to mind immediately.  Besides, I like the reputation that this blog has established with this name.  We have within the last several months started getting some very good traffic and I don’t want to spoil that.