Obama’s Race Card

Barack Obama

Sure Barack Obama does not think Dirty Harry Reid is a racist, from Eric Zimmermann, Hill:

“Harry Reid called me today and apologized for an unfortunate comment reported today,” Obama said. “I accepted Harry’s apology without question because I’ve known him for years, I’ve seen the passionate leadership he’s shown on issues of social justice and I know what’s in his heart.  As far as I am concerned, the book is closed.”

Yet Reid clearly is a racist.   Reid falsely disparged Clarence Thomas’s writing skill, from the Wall Street Journal. via Instapundit. Judging Reid by his racial slanders and not bu his libeal politics, deems Reid a racist.

Obama’s definition of racist seems to leave out all liberal politicians such a Bobby “Sheets” Byrd.

Yet Obama has no problem seeing racism, when it suits his political means, from Jake Tapper, Political Punch , via Rick Wizbang:

“I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus,” Obama told ABC News, “but I would also say that there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude.”

Obama called for the firing of Don Imus but attended Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church for twenty years.   Interesting!

It does seem that Obama places a higher priority on politics than national security.   Ace asks:

Check Out Speed of Obama’s Reaction in Harry Reid Contretemps Vs. Christmas Panty-Bomber

Indeed.

Says Ben Smith:

One of the enduring mysteries of the 2008 campaign was what got Ted Kennedy so mad at Bill Clinton. The former president’s entreaties, at some point, backfired, and the explanation has never quite emerged.

I’ve finally gotten my hands on a copy of Game Change, in which John Heliemann and Mark Halperin report:

[A]s Hillary bungled Caroline, Bill’s handling of Ted was even worse. The day after Iowa, he phoned Kennedy and pressed for an endorsement, making the case for his wife. But Bill then went on, belittling Obama in a manner that deeply offended Kennedy. Recounting the conversation later to a friend, Teddy fumed that Clinton had said, A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.

The sad part is, Clinton was quite correct., if we’re talking about basing such  judgments on Obama’s actual qualifications for the job.  But, let’s get real, here and  recall who it is we’re talking about…. Think, now… Teddy Kennedy, supposedly being offended by Bill Clinton’s supposedly bad behavior? Yeah, THAT makes sense, right?

I suspect what’s really the story here is that Teddy couldn’t bear to see a strong woman, much less a woman President.  Of course, the situation would be reversed were the subject Caroline, for example which should give you an indication of how committed Teddy was to such things.

“The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.”

Illinois Senator Barack Obama(2002), via John McCormack, Weekly Standard.

The dim one is only opposed to racists, when they are republicans.

Another interview with Crystal Faulkner and Tom Cooney on WNKU’s BusinessWise. Topics include social media scams and strong passwords.

You can listen here: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wnku/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1595257/Business

The interview starts at 16:53.

Love to hear your feedback and ideas for other topics!

Chuckles the Clown, b/k/a Senator Charles Schumer likes to think of himself as both the smartest man in the room and the political king maker of the Empire State.   Evidently Harold Ford, Jr,  late of Tennessee, did not get the memo.   Ford seems to  gearing up to challenge Chuckles hand picked toady Kirsten Gillibrand, from Ben Smith, Politico:

Harold Ford’s bid for Senate just got a little more serious: He’s hired a spokesman, and — I’m told — brought on board Mike Bloomberg’s campaign manager and pollster to help with his bid.

It seems the hard left is taking Ford seriously, David Dayen, Fire Dog Lake:

Kirsten Gillibrand was viewed warily when she entered the Senate, but her record has been pretty solid and she’s spoken out on LGBT issues. Harold Ford, OTOH, voted for most of the George W. Bush agenda in the House, banked Joe Lieberman after he lost to Ned Lamont and was running for Senate as an independent, and voted to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case. Just reviewing Gillibrand and Ford’s House records side-by-side, it’s no contest. Not to mention the fact that Wall Street is essentially trying to buy a Senate seat (as if they don’t have enough already).

Anybody who can inspire the wrath of Jane Hamsher, merits a mention.

The LA Times is reporting:

Gumby and his sidekick Pokey

Art Clokey, the creator of the whimsical clay figure Gumby, died in his sleep Friday at his home in Los Osos, Calif., after battling repeated bladder infections, his son Joseph said. He was 88.

Clokey and his wife, Ruth, invented Gumby in the early 1950s at their Covina home shortly after Art had finished film school at USC. After a successful debut on “The Howdy Doody Show,” Gumby soon became the star of its own hit television show, “The Adventures of Gumby,” the first to use clay animation on television.

Clokey created Gumby and company in the 1950’s after having graduated form the USC film school. Gumby was probably unique in terms of when he could have been created, being as much a product of the technology available at the time as he was a product of Clokey’s imagination. The story lines are certainly campy late nineteen fifties, early nineteen sixties fodder. but even absent the aspects of time, the technology available today would completely change the characters Clokey created. I personally have difficulty imagining Gumby as implemented by Pixar, for example… as much as I respect their work.  Let’s face it… a lot of the attraction of those characters Clokey created, were actually artifacts of the filmmaking process that he developed.Itw as a look and ‘feel’ unlike anything else on the market at the time.  And they’re now, alas, merely quaint artifacts themselves.

Snark of the Day, from Liz  Cheney’s Keep America Safe, video:

Hat tip:  Ben Smith, Politico.

Devastating!

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

• SO PEOPLE TALKING UP OBAMACARE TOOK MONEY FROM ADMINISTRATION? So reports Megan McArdle, though frankly it should shock nobody:
  

  MIT economist Jonathan Gruber has become the go-to economist for fans of the health care reform wending its way through congress.  He regularly produces analyses showing how great reform is going to be for people buying insurance in the individual market, and has been a vocal advocate for the excise tax.  His prominence made him a natural lead-in for Ron Brownstein’s recent piece on the health care bill for Atlantic Politics:

  When I reached Jonathan Gruber on Thursday, he was working his way, page by laborious page, through the mammoth health care bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had unveiled just a few hours earlier. Gruber is a leading health economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is consulted by politicians in both parties. He was one of almost two dozen top economists who sent President Obama a letter earlier this month insisting that reform won’t succeed unless it “bends the curve” in the long-term growth of health care costs. And, on that front, Gruber likes what he sees in the Reid proposal. Actually he likes it a lot.
  “I’m sort of a known skeptic on this stuff,” Gruber told me. “My summary is it’s really hard to figure out how to bend the cost curve, but I can’t think of a thing to try that they didn’t try. They really make the best effort anyone has ever made. Everything is in here….I can’t think of anything I’d do that they are not doing in the bill. You couldn’t have done better than they are doing.”

  He shows up in the work of the left-half of the health care commentariat so often that if I tried to round up representative cites, this piece would be published sometime next month, and you’d die of old age before you made your way through it.

  That kind of consistency when so many other people are pointing exactly the opposite direction, and further, have the facts to back up their points, obviates the question of whether not money was involved.  The question remaining was from where did it come.  As Megan points out, the administration had the responsibility to identify that relationship between itself and Gruber.  How much of the money’s being spent to “revitalize” America, are actually being spent to promote Neo-socialist policy, I wonder?

• WHERE’S THE JOBS?
  

  WHERE'S THE JOBS?

  Clara Peller wondered “where’s the beef?”. If she were alive today and looking at the jobs report, she’d be directing her ire at the Administration, I suspect demanding to know “WHERE”S THE JOBS?”

• WITHER LENO: There appears to be some movement, or at least some negotiation, going on with Jay Leno and NBC these days. Ultimately it comes down to how seriously they take  Conan O’Brien.  And what kind of an offer Fox can make a point Leno himself alluded to.  Here’s a clue, however, for NBC;   David Letterman, and CBS.  Do I really need to spell that one out?
• It”S ABOUT TIME:  The Washington Post is making a lot of smoke these days about Michael Steele, the RNC chairman.   It’s time that the republican congressional leaders discovered the truth of the matter; it’s they have damaged the republican brand and not Michael Steele.  That being the case, and barring any miracles in terms of the republican congressional leadership actually following Steele’s direction, he’s quite correct, in that they Republicans won’t do nearly as well.  my message to the congressional leadership, however, is just because Michael Steele doesn’t agree with you, doesn’t mean that he’s not playing to win for Republicans.  Which of course a raises the question about whether are not you are.  And frankly, I figure that’s probably what makes you more nervous than anything.
• SO YOU LOOKING FOR H1N1 VACCINE? Apparently, due to the fabulous management ability of the Federal government, we have located a few truckloads of the stuff floating around unused. Let’s see… we’re going to let these morons manage our healthcare why, again?

Apparently ABC news needs to start offering remedial courses in recent history. First student should be Correspondent and all around leftie apologist George Stephanopoulos.

President Obama yesterday took personal responsibility for failures in the Christmas day terror plot, but Rudy Giuliani still isn’t convinced.

I spoke to the former mayor of New York City this morning on GMA, who assailed the Obama administration’s decisions on national security.

“What he [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did — one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama,” Giuliani said. “Number two, he should correct the things that Bush didn’t do right. Sending people to Yemen was wrong, not getting this whole intelligence thing corrected.”

Giuliani seems to have forgotten about the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and shoe bomber Richard Reid.

What a maroon!

No, actually he’s right, George… and as usual, you’re dead wrong.

He’s saying that following 9/11 there were no domestic attacks. It’s a point he also made on Fox this morning. After the government had evdience that we were in fact at war,  that no further domestic attacks occurred. In this, he’s correct.  Oh, of course, you mention “The Shoe Bomber.” But, no, this was not a domestic attack. That’s a point you’d know very well, if you bothered looking it up. Heres a clue, George, since you so badly need one:

The 2001 shoe bomb plot was a failed bombing attempt that occurred on American Airlines Flight 63 flying from Charles De Gaulle International Airport in Paris, France, to Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, on December 22, 2001.

That can hardly be considered a ‘domestic’ attack, George. Not even close. Maybe now we better understand how it is you’re doing the Morning show instead of hard news, huh?

Now… as to why that’s important… If you really want to consider the 9/11 attacks to have been preventable, there’s only one way that could have been prevented all.  That would be if we had taken seriously the act of war that was the first attack on the world trade center. The Clinton administration (doubtless advised by yourself in the matter ) decided the best way to deal with the situation was a civilian courts.  The result of that, of course, was the 9/11 attacks.  Of course, that’s probably why you never mentioned that particular attack.

You see, the point here is that the attack on Christmas Day was a direct result of our government not taking our security seriously.  Certainly, after 9/11, the bush administration had all kinds of actionable information.  Then again, so did Obama.  I leave explaining away the differences, to you.

Word from the AP that a serious threat was brought to justice in DC today:

WASHINGTON — A man was taken into custody and later hospitalized for a mental observation after he took off all of his clothes and began a jog a few blocks from the White House.

See, what  can’t figure out is why they’re worried.  As a matter of history, Naked people seldom have much if any impact on history and are certainly no security threat.

“Second you have, something we’ve never before seen, a Chicago machine in the White House. The ruthlessness, the willingness to bribe senators, the fundamental dishonesty of the system… This is a ruthless machine that doesn’t care what it says, it cares what it can get away with.”

Newt Gingrich, from Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit.

Welcome, one and all, to the most intensely cold read anywhere on the web; The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble.

The picture to the right is of the sign outside the Nightly Ramble Regional HQ in Athern, Wisconsin. The locals are complaining how warm it is.

• JACK MURTHA CORRUPT? WHO THE HECK DIDN’T KNOW? Dan Riehl passes along word that a defense contractor with ties to Jack Murtha has been suspended for kickbacks. At some point, somebody’s actually going to have the stones to challenge Murtha himself on his corruption. unfortunately, by then, the damage will of been done.
• AT WHAT POINT DO WE SAY ENOUGH? From Investors Business Daily,  is news that the Democrat Party is now planning to regulate tax preparers. In short, if you don’t have a license for tax preparation issued by the government, it’s illegal for you to prepare somebody else’s taxes for them.  At what point do Americans say “government has enough power”?
• CONFLICT OF DIRECTION: Perhaps the reason that the CIA is having so much difficulty maintaining a lock on terrorists, is they’re spending a good deal of their cycles on supporting the “global warming” myth?
  
• SPEAKING OF WHICH… HOW IS THAT GLOBAL WARMING THING WORKING OUT FOR YOU? .Midwest bracing for heavy snow -- wind chills of 50 below!
  Next Arctic Blast blows even colder...
  Persistent cold tightens grip on nation...
  CHILL MAP...
  Britain's big snow shuts cities...
  Death toll rises to 22 in UK's biggest freeze for 30 years......
  Arctic blast freezes Texas...
  Weekend Freeze Looms for Gulf Coast...
  Florida races to save crops...
  ICE DELAYS FLIGHTS IN TAMPA...
  Links from Drudge again today. I know several people in Florida who are wondering why they moved down there , just now.
• THE TRANSPARENCY LIE: As far as I’m concerned, Brian Lamb of C- Span should be a medal of freedom winner, once the current occupant of the White House vacates it.  The man has single-handedly shown how badly we’ve been lied to, and what the Democrat party really thinks of their promise of “transparency”.
• ARTIE LANGE? It seems beyond question that Lange is a troubled soul. sadly, some of the greatest comedians this country has ever seen were similarly troubled.  Having just seen Steven Spielberg’s “1941” John Belushi comes to mind.    But how in bleep does one stab oneself nine times?
• SPEAKING OF SUICIDE: Yes, I saw the events today in Saint Louis.  As of this writing, three your dad, five more wounded at the ABB plant is the report from 1120/KMOX which for some reason is coming in up here. Must be the cold snap.  The latest report of received suggests that the gunman is one of the dead and apparent suicide.

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

• INTERESTING PASSAGE: The guy who shot up the Holocaust Museum a few months ago, has died in prison.
• NIGERIA LAUGHER: Nigeria is now screaming that the new air rules are going to cause problems for our ‘bilateral relationship”. Like it was doing us so much good to begin with? Still can this be considered another success of Obama Foreign Policy?
• CHARGING THE BOMBER: The guy who tried to blow up the airliner in Detroit faces 6 charges. Look, I’m all for due process. Try the man. Then string him up by the nads he tried to blow off. And do it publicly. Make sure it gets on TV in the Middle East.
• BALTIMORE GAMES: Corruption of course is the way of things there. And gee, what a shock… Democrats run the place. THe Mayor there has been allowed to resign as a part of  a plea deal. The charge? Stealing from the poor. Frankly, I consider how that’s different from any other Democrat in the country, to be an open question. Look at the taxes being heaped on all of America by the current congress and administration. Including the poor.
• DEMOCRATS ARE TOAST AND ARE ACTING LIKE THEY KNOW IT: Let’s see. Dodd’s out, apparently seeing the threats written on the wall. He knows he’s not going to win.  Given the corruption of the man, the only way the Democrats can hang onto the seat is for Dodd to retire. State AG Richard Blumenthal will run in his place and his winning is an open question, even in that Democrat party bastion.  Byron Dorgan is also retiring… and he, too sees he’s not got a  chance in hell to win re-election. Even with him gone, the polling suggests that his district is so annoyed with the Democrats,   his republican challanger…. whoever they end up offering, (Maybe Gov John Hoven?) would stroll into the job.  John Cherry has decided he’s not going to run for Governor of Michigan… even in a nominally Democrat Party Stronghold, he’s not gonna make it, knows it and is pulling out. Bill Ritter of Colorado is rumored to have dropped out of his re-election bid for Governor, but we’ve seen nothing official here at Casa de Bit yet. So much for the mandate of the masses. Sissy wonders if this is the Tea Party Effect. I’d say no.  I would suggest, rather, that what’s going on here is that the same effect that brought the tea parties to the fore are the same conditions that are ousting Democrats. The tea party crowd is one reaction of many to a problem , it’s not the direct cause of anything.  The only way I would call them a cause of anything in terms of elections is if they manage to get somebody elected.  Somebody specific, I mean.
• OBAMA LIED:

  Any questions, class?

• STILL COLD: More from Drudge:
  

  Winter Could Be Worst in 25 Years for USA...
  CHILL MAP...
  Britain's big snow shuts cities...
  GAS SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT IN UK...
  Elderly burn books for warmth?
  Army drafted to rescue 1,000 snow stranded motorists...
  Vermont sets 'all-time record for one snowstorm'...
  Iowa temps 'a solid 30 degrees below normal'...
  Seoul buried in heaviest snowfall in 70 years...
  3 die in fire at Detroit home; power was cut...
  Midwest Sees Near-Record Lows, Snow By The Foot...
  Miami shivers from coldest weather in decade; Florida Gov Signs Emergency Order ...
  Cold snap spurs power rationing in China...

  Word from a few points in Florida (lake Placid and Sebring to name two) this morning that they got to 27 last night. I blame Global Warming, myself.

Harold Ford, Jr. democrat from  Tennessee New York is reported to be considering a run for the Senate, video:

Welcome to the Empire State, Harold.