Obama Loses the SEIU

From a letter from Andy Stern to the members of the Service Employees International Union, to her members:

SEIU does not accept that this monumental effort – that this reform that is so necessary to the health and wellbeing of our economy, our families and our future – can be over without a fight. A fight to make it work for you and your families.

The SEIU was instrumental in getting  Barack  Obama elected.   Ohama has declared health care reform is  number one objective, and now his lost is one  ally.    Over three left in office, and Obama may reached lame duck status

Health care reform was Obama biggest objective of his presidency.   It was to be his legacy    It wzs a the battle of and for his presidency.   Obama tried to win the battle of his presidency  by voting present.

Mean while Lisa Solod Warren, writing in the Puffington  Post, identifies Obama’s problem:

The truth is that a couple of people–and I am not even sure, always who they are–are running our country and one of them is not our elected president.

While Warren does use the word, what she describes is a puppet and not a president.  Later, Warren expresses shock that her puppet is not a leader:

And Obama remains a brilliant thinker, an orator who can rally the masses, a supremely educated man and, by all accounts a dedicated husband and father. But he has been unable to fight the system he said he wanted to fight. He has been unable to effect real, honest-to-goodness change. In the spirit of reconciliation instead of leadership, he has slipped and fallen on the battlefield of politics. All we can hope is that he can stand up again, soon, and take charge.

Puppets do not lead.  As it is Obama is neither brilliant, nor educated, credentialed maybe, educated no.

Hat tip and more: William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection.

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

• BIG MOUTH:There’s never been any question in my mind that role Schumer is probably one of the top ten in the incident country.  Anyone that self aggrandizing will generally speaking have lots to say negative about anybody who crosses their path.  So is, with Chuckles The Clown.
• PERSON OF THE YEAR? If we had any doubts about there being little if any relationship between Time Magazine’s  “Person of the year” awards, and reality, and there should be no longer.
• OBAMA TO APPEAR ON WWE SPECIAL? Well, that’s what TV Week is reporting.  Obviously, Mr. Obama is going for the thinking man.
• WHAT’S ON THE WAY: The Cato institute has been doing probably the best work of anybody that I’ve been reading as regards tracking the Healthcare nonsense and what it will mean to us if they ever managed to get it passed into law, God forbid.

By Karen Jones, JonesToTheGrindstone.com

I am building a catalog of tools and equipment to better ease us through our days—as we live amongst those who just don’t “get” us, want to “get” us, or even notice us as needing to be “gotten”.

On top of the list of regular disturbances to be eased is sifting through all the bullshit that comes out of people’s mouths.  Going without those biting mental anthills would be great! What I propose is this: a “passive bullshit detector”. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?! These detectors would come in many different forms: wall mounts, desk art, paperweights, and those clips that latch into a car air louvers. From fruits to florals, many different fragrance cartridges would be available.

When bullshit is sensed, a pleasant scent would release into the air. The scented spray announces the whiff of fabricated nonsense is in the air. The owner of this detector could confidently relax knowing that, “yes,” she just experienced the inconvenience of predatory, fecal balderdash. No more guessing!

Think of how much better your environment would smell. Overwhelmingly so.

Why is gender feminism dying?  Because the men the  gender feminists demand are nothing like the men women want.   Robert Stacy McCain explores Gone with the Wind at seventy.    So while Rhett Butler is the male chauvinist  sexist pig that gender feminist profess to hate, Butler was created by the pen of a woman.

Welcome, one in all, to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the Blogosphere… the BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

• ALL IN ON HEALTHCARE: Some interesting thoughts on this, from the Washington Examiner this morning. Look,  guys, they know they’re going to lose big time at the next election because of their going “all in” on the government takeover of health care. The vast majority of the American people don’t want a government takeover of healthcare  They know this.   At this stage of the game though, even assuming a Democrat party withdrawal and having it labeled a failure, could the price possibly get any higher?  And you see, real socialist ideologues don’t really care about the price.  The neo- socialist dogma considers being voted out of office a small price to pay for the government intervention in freedom.  Health care is no exception.  Another point; Even assuming they don’t manage to get the full government takeover, euphemistically known as the “public option” into law in this session, get anything passed at this point is simply kicking that can further down the road toward socialism.  That, dear reader, is the goal… complete government control. Until you understand the long-term neo-socialist goal, you do not understand the current crop of Democrats. Until you understand that complete government control means absolutely no freedom whatsoever, you don’t understand how dangerous the whole deal is.
• YOU CAN ALWAYS TELL: you can always tell the level of Democrat desperation  when they start applying double standards.  Case in point , brought to the fore by Neal Boortz:
  

  

  Neal Boortz

  Just this past week The Community Organizer told Republicans that they needed to stop frightening the American people. Yeah .. it’s those evil Republicans who are trying to scare people. But wait! Who was it attacking Joe Lieberman yesterday? Lieberman, you see, will not support a health care bill with an early buy-in for Medicare or the government option. The early Medicare buy-in is, of course, the ultimate government option. So … the reaction of the left? Yesterday Ezra Klein in the Washington Post said that Joe Lieberman was willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people to settle an old political score. Yup .. Joe Lieberman is a killer.

  That is what I mean when I say the Democrats are “all in” on this. (I suppose you would have to be a poker player to understand what I’m talking about, but I’m sure most of you understand the concept )

• ANOTHER TRUTH AL GORE WOULD LIKE TO IGNORE: The North pole sums don’t add up, says the Times of London. Well, given the budgets that came out of the administration he was supposedly a part of, I guess a balanced spreadsheet as regards temperature readings is a little too much to be expected. But here’s an idea; how about we let nature take care of the problem , as it had been doing we are told, for billions of years before man came along?
• SWINE FLU VACCINE RECALL: The  Associated Press is reporting that Healthcare officials are recalling on the order of 800,000 doses of kids swine flu vaccine. The stated reason for the recall is that the inoculate may not be potent enough to do the job.   More government health care perils.
• CHICAGO AGAIN: I mentioned yesterday that there was going to be some serious wrapper cautions with former Illinois governor Blagojevich end his trial on corruption charges being from the center.  Couple that with the mess that the democrats are made out of the country, and you have some serious momentum.  Momentum enough in fact to the point where even Chicago voters are considering replacing the senate seat of Barack Obama with a Republican. at this point the numbers are suggesting that the chances are very good indeed that that’s exactly what’s going to happen.  Also, notice the shift away from the democrats in Joe Biden’s former district.
• WHY THE STONE WALL TACTICS ON THE FT HOOD SHOOTER? I’ve said it before, I will say it again.  The white house and the democrats in Congress are desperate to keep anything out of the news that will indicate that we in America are under the threat of Islamic terrorists.  So it is that the white house is still stonewalling the attempt at mounting a congressional investigation of Nidal Malik Hasan, and how ha managed to go unreported for as long as he did.

From the mail bag and passed without comment:

-1-

STANDING UP TO STOP CONGRESS!
DEATH TO THE HEALTH CARE BILL

Many of us are unable to attend the National DC rally on the 15th yet still wish to participate in a sit-in. The Senate is busy working on the details of a government run healthcare bill and they would like to pass it as quickly as possible. Some of them are under the false impression that we’ve given up and gone away just because they haven’t heard much from us in the past few days. And those Senators who have not made a final decision on how to vote are in danger of leaning in the wrong direction. We must remind them that our steadfast opposition to a government takeover of healthcare is as strong now as it has been all along.

We are going hold our OWN protests here Nashville Tennessee. Harry Reid is only 3-4 votes away from passing this massive Healthcare takeover. Nancy Pelosi has sworn to keep the House in session over the Christmas break if the Senate will quickly pass the bill.

The primary goal is to stop the threats to our most basic freedoms by raising awareness of those threats to press and public.

Details of the sit-in.

WHEN: Tuesday December 15th
TIME: 8:45 AM local time
LOCATION: Senator Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander’s office
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=q0py2w7ryhbj&scene=14395871&lvl=1&sty=b

Senator Bob Corker
Senator Lamar Alexander
3322 W End Ave # 610
Nashville, TN 37203-6814
(615) 279-8125

If you plan to attend please

Email James Bowman at [email protected]

We need a head count to plan appropriately.

Bring your cameras, video cameras and cell phones to record and upload the event.  Bring blankets for sitting on

In conjunction with the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) and thousands of other citizens across the country, in protest of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid vision of healthcare “reform”, please join us at the above address for a sit-in at their offices.

THE PLAN:

– Meet in front of the building at the address listed above and make our way to their offices. If this is not possible, we will stage our sit-in in the front doors to the building.

– We will have handouts provided to share with staff and fellow citizens who may be walking by.

– Please understand, the mission is to stay there as long as possible, raising the awareness of what is transpiring with our Federal Government, before being removed physically by police.

This is to be a ‘civil disobedience’ protest for all parties involved. It is an absolute must we, as American citizens conduct ourselves in a non-violent manner. ANY violence during this protest will not be tolerated. We must hold true to the standards the Tea Party rallies have shown and let our elected officials know we are willing to peacefully fight back against what is transpiring.

PLAN B: (For those who wish to utilize bus transportation.)
– Contact Cyndi Miller at 594-0425 or [email protected] to reserve a seat on a bus. If there are sufficient reservations and a convenient location to meet, a bus may be contracted for our use. If there are not 25 reservations by 8 am Monday,
Plan B is no longer an option!!!
– Riders may sign up to take the bus round-trip enabling participation in the petition signing, visiting the Senators’ offices, and protesting. Or riders may sign up to ride one-way and stay to participate in the “Sit-In.”
– NOTE: Due to the lack of notice, buses may not be available.

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

• OBAMA TO REID: CUT A DEAL WITH LIEBERMAN: Carrie Budoff Brown at The Politico says:
  

  The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

  But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

  “There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others,” the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

  Well, he certainly holding up the democrats, but in looking at the situation I can tell but wonder if that isn’t a good thing.  I notice that according to the Huff and Puff, something on the order of 80% of Democrats want Lieberman “punished” for impeding their “reform”.  I seem to recall arguments like this in the Reichstag not so long ago. The current indications are that Lieberman isn’t going to vote for this thing, but it’s still an open question in my mind as to whether not they manage to get him to move on the subject.  Meanwhile, Harry still can’t raise 60 votes.

  Let’s make no mistake about this; the Democrats, including the White House, are desperate to get this through.  If they don’t, the Rep are cautions in the next election will be even worse than they already were.  Indeed, so desperate are they at this point that Obama has put out a call for the Senate Democrats to show up to the White House on Tuesday .  It might be interesting to be a fly on the wall in that meeting.  The vitriol flying around that room would be palpable, I think.

  Oh..And before I forget, let’s also mentioned that what is going on here under the covers is an argument over a government health care takeover, euphemistically referred to as a “public option”.  The men and now Ben Nelson as well, I are both saying that they will not vote for any bill which contains any public option of any kind.  Note the way that’s worded.  If the democrats really wanted to get their health care reform going, all they would have to do is remove the “public eye option”.  They won’t do it.  They want the government to take over health care.  Even the most Americans don’t.  So, when you see hairier read standing up in front of the cameras and the microphones and screaming about how senator Lieberman is holding up 50 others, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how we can impress on Harry Reid that the number 58 is small changes compared to the millions who oppose the Democrats and their Neo socialist plans.

• WHY SET IT UP IF YOU DON’T PLAN TO USE IT? According to Andrew Taylor in a story currently moving on the Associated Press wires, the democrats are planning to allow the government’s debt to go up by nearly two trillion dollars is part of a bill that they’re going to put out next week as a part of a plan to pay for the worse in Afghanistan and Iraq.  That’s a total debt limit of 12 trillion dollars.  Notice the way those two situations are tied together in the bill. Either we let them raise the debt ceiling by two trillion dollars, or they don’t fund the military.  Personally, I find it unconscionable that the democrats are playing politics with soldiers lives again.  However, this is not new ground.  They played the same game with Vietnam. And as for the dollar figures involved, does anybody seriously consider that we’re going to be paying this thing off any time soon, particularly given we’ve just come off some rather good years and haven’t paid a dime in that time?
• BLAGO REDUX:Just when you thought it was safe to go back and what are the name Blagojevich is showing up again. this is going to play a large in the 2010 election cycle, because this trial is going to go on for at least that long.  There is nobody on the face of the planet that won’t understand that Blagojevich comes from the same background Obama. you do the math.
• OBAMAVILLE? It’s a name for a tent city in Colorado , occupied by homeless people.

By Karen Jones, www.JonesToTheGrindstone.com

All types of hairdos walk through this maze of aisles, bins, and end-cap displays: the tightly curled, the heavily-shellacked, the Easter egg-colored, the pigtailed, and even the bald. These captains of hair commandeer their vessels as soon as they file through the automatic glass doors. The cargo ship is launched and guided through the vast selection of human staples and non-essentials. All the while, the ship’s bowels are loaded with planning and purpose; but, at times, seemingly without a single thought or any sense at all.

This place can be risky, too. All day long it holds dear the most perilous combination of “traffic impeders”—the very young and the very old (and their handlers). Additionally, these polarized sub-groups can have the most interesting of hair styles known to mankind and they can butt heads like nobody’s business.

Welcome to inside the commissary, or in layman’s terms, the military’s grocery store. Upon entry, one should be issued full-body padding and a hand paddle that reads, “Sorry!” on one side and “Excuse me,” on the other. I say this not only because you will constantly bump into your fellow shoppers, but you will also rapidly tire of saying those apologetic phrases over and over again.

Silent “severe storm alerts” fill the gulf and are unheeded. Even the produce section may sound out a simulated thunder clap followed by rain sprinkles. Such troubled waters bring out the worst in people and I can attest to that personally.

When my son was two-years-old, he was cursed with the ailment of daily tantrums. (I know that is highly unusual for that age bracket, but I digress.) But, since I am his mother, I knew best how to get his bursts of ill temper to pass more quickly—completely ignore his screams, cries, and flailing limbs. As I slighted his latest fit, I breezily inspected the navel oranges. (My cart was maybe six feet away. I didn’t want to look like I was “with him”, but I didn’t want to get stopped for child neglect either.) On deck with me at the oranges was a petite, senior woman.

I acknowledged her with a smile and she just glared back. I began to wonder if her helmet-hair was too heavy to keep her responsive. But, she broke her hush with a saucy, “I hope I don’t have to hear that [my son] the whole time I’m in here.”

A little miffed, I softly responded, “Well, I hope you don’t either.”

Despite that, she forged ahead with, “You should take him outside!”

Whoa, Gussy! This made me start to waffle and scramble, but then my right arm swung around to almost hit her between the eyes, with my index finger extended outward.As I stood for all mothers who suffered in stores with their embarrassingly loud children, I shouted, “Why don’t you mind your own business, lady?!”

That emphatic statement left the old bat speechless, but me in a near nervous breakdown.

I returned to my son, who had fallen asleep upright, and wheeled towards the condiments. I wanted to go home.  But, now, I had a napping toddler and I needed to complete filling my vessel with—something.

The explosion was heard ’round the shipyard. On my way out, I was stopped by well-wishers with “high-fives” or by others who gave me looks of reproach. With no hair out-of-place, I retreated to the cashier’s line soaking in the incident and its fallout. Maybe straight-jackets should be issued at embarkation as well.

From, Todd Venezia, James Faeelly and Holly Sanders, New York Post:

A year away from golf would cost Tiger Woods $180 million in lost endorsements, tournament winnings and appearance fees — about $15 million per floozy, industry analysts estimate.

In an announcement that stunned the golf world, Woods said on Friday he was withdrawing indefinitely from the game to try and mend his broken marriage to his betrayed wife, Elin Nordegren.

Ok, my title is just a wee bit over wrought.

Meanwhile, from Nancy Dillon and Corky Siemaszko,  New York Daily News:

Tiger Woods’ humiliated wife has bought herself a little Faglaro Island hideaway as reports swirled that she’s moved out on her sex-crazed hubby.

Elin Nordegren’s real estate purchase in Sweden fueled speculation she might take the kids back to her homeland to start a new life far from her transgressing Tiger

No report if Faglaro Island has a golf course.   Somehow I doubt it.  What say you?

Over at PAjamas Media, Mary Grabar asks an interesting one: Why Are Tiger’s Women Getting a Pass?

As the widespread coverage of Tiger Woods’ affairs has demonstrated, we have a double standard when it comes to extramarital affairs between married men and young, single women.

It’s hard to avoid news about it. Even Rush Limbaugh has talked about Tiger Woods’ “conquests.” Some black media commentators have criticized Woods for excluding black women.

Woods’ mistresses and flings, ranging from cocktail waitresses to porn stars, are being made into minor celebrities. They share attention with the prostitute, Ashley Dupre, who brought down Governor Eliot Spitzer.

But rarely are these women the objects of opprobrium. When one TV commentator called these women “bimbos,” he was shot down by the host for his lack of respect.

the question is a potent one, and goes directly to the comments that I raised in a recent Nightly Ramble, income inning on doctor Helen Smith’s comments about how beautiful women can be killers two.  There is something of political correctness going on here, but I began to wonder if that’s all there is to it.  Wonder if what we’re dealing with here isn’t the systematic tearing down of someone who is reasonably successful it what he does, on the merits of his performance. Sport, whatever else may be said about it, is in fact the last meritocracy, and one that under attack recently.

But let’s examine this briefly.  Did women involved not know that the guy was married ?  Is prostituting oneself, given that we are talking about in large number people who were paid for sex, a sign of empowerment, by the likes of today’s left?

Look, before you get started, I will be the last one to lead to the defense of Mr. Woods.  It seems to me that his puttering around, speaks for itself.  Thing is, there seems to be something of a double standard being applied here.  I suppose and expect that the resounding silence to the question that Mary asks will be evidence enough that double standards in such matters are not going to disappear anytime soon.

Addendum: (David L)

Yes what about Tiger Woods’ women?   Phylis Chesler,  Pajamas Media, has an answer.  It neither short, nor sweet:

Johns are men — and to a John, women are either whores or wives. Mainly whores. Yes, there are many exceptions, but this is the rule. I am talking about the multi-billion dollar industry of prostitution (which in my book is not a victimless crime). The prostituted girl or woman is usually the victim.

But not always.

Tiger’s girls (all seemingly Caucasian, mainly blondes) are proud that he chose them, proud of the emails he sent their way, proud to have had sex with him for money — perhaps sometimes for no money, just for the thrill of it. These girls are not jilted lovers. They are professional prostitutes, celebrity wannabees, trying to trade on their youth and on their surgically perfected looks to become “somebody.” What else can they do? They are young, there are countless more where they came from, they age quickly. Some of these women are cocktail waitresses, event planners, restaurant managers, lingerie models, all-purpose models; some are porn stars (!), career prostitutes, and some are pimps.

I concur.   I add, while I don’t see  Woods as another O.J. Simpson,  Woods never killed anybody.   In his lust for bimbos,  Woods is a  lot like the former Reprobate in Chief,  a/k/a B.J.  Clinton, but with better taste and without Clinton’s  propensity for violence.   Yet the media made a  cottage industry out of attacking  all of Clinton’s bimbos and his wife used her victim status to get elected to the Senate.   Apparently, Woods has not sufficiently proclaimed his passionate support for abortion.

This one a beaut and it is a winner,  video:

If the Democrats are stupid enough to trust Dirty Harry Reid to write the plan for one seventh our our economy, a plan that nobody likes and most oppose, the ‘rats stupid is enough to lose control of Congress.

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

• BEAUTIFUL KILLER: Dr. Helen Smith (That’s Mrs Glenn Reynolds to you)  examines the concept that beatiful women can be killers, too. That people can be surprised by this point is I think indicative of something larger than our relationships with the fairer sex.  I wonder how many elections, for example,  I decided because one candidate is the better looking?  Certainly, at least a few.  Obama, for example.
• “POPULATION CONTROL”  BY ANY OTHER NAME: Jonah Goldberg hits this one out of the park, as regards the supposedly ecologically driven call for a one child policy world wide:
  

  Imagine if someone wrote an op-ed saying that we need a planetary ban on abortion. Feminists would get their dresses over their heads in outrage about such a naked assault on “reproductive freedom.” But here is a woman in a very prestigious Canadian newspaper arguing, in effect, that every country in the world should force women everywhere to have an abortion if they already have a child. Put aside, for a moment, the pro-life objections to this. Even if you think the unborn are really just a bunch of cells, mere “uterine contents” with no more moral import than fingernail clippings, how on earth can anyone believe in “reproductive freedom” and not be absolutely horrified by the police-state evil of such proposals?

  Well, exactly. With a nod to Billy, I’ll invoke Hayek:

  “Just as the democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans, so the totalitarian dictator would soon have to choose between disregard of ordinary morals and failure. It is for this reason that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending toward totalitarianism.”

  It seems to me the Jonah’s comment plays directly to this quote, particularly the first sentence.It’s obvious, that there is a transposition being made here from the economic to the everyday life, but the principle is sound.  And it is, as the name of the book that’s quoted from implies, a mile stick on the road to serfdom.

• AND THAT”S NOT ALL Lest you consider that this would be the only area where the government would make decisions about you and your life, consider the provision being floated by majority leader Harry Reid.
  Back on September 10 of this year, the president employed the stratus to faces while telling us…

  

  Barack Obama

  They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick.

  Of course, he was referring by “they”, to the private health insurance companies.  But watch what happens when government takes control of your health care…. yes, children, exactly what they were protesting when the private companies had control. From the AP today:

  WASHINGTON — A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.

  The legislation that originally passed the Senate health committee last summer would have banned such limits, but a tweak to that provision weakened it in the bill now moving toward a Senate vote.

  As currently written, the Senate Democratic health care bill would permit insurance companies to place annual limits on the dollar value of medical care, as long as those limits are not “unreasonable.” The bill does not define what level of limits would be allowable, delegating that task to administration officials.

  Adding to the puzzle, the new language was quietly tucked away in a clause in the bill still captioned “No lifetime or annual limits.”

  Now, of course I am aware that the article apparently refers to private insurers being able to play such limits.  Why on earth would they do that with the private insurers, unless they planned on doing it in the government plan as well?  So, in other words, not only are we being lied to, by the president when he says there would be no such limits, but now we’re being lied to in the framework of the bill.  Such upstanding people, these Democrats.

• WHO GETS THE GRAVY? We keep seeing these reports about how the economy is recovering, and jobs are being created.  Yet we also see jobs being lost in the private sector.  And there’s the clue.  The only growth going on in terms of jobs is in the government sector.  As a matter of fact the average pay for government workers these days is $30,000.00 over that of the average private sector worker.  In other words, the people who are losing their jobs are out of work and being asked to pay more and more taxes to support the Democrats grandiose schemes, are being asked to pay for more and more government workers who make far more than they themselves do.  USA TODAY says:
  

  The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

  Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

  Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

  Does anybody think that this isn’t going to have a percussion set the next election?  I suppose the answer that question depends on whether or not ACORN is still running the census and manning the voting stations. Anyone up for “Animal Farm?”

Tom Jensen Public Policy Polling, offers up this delicious tidbit:

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama’s declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they’d rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that’s somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country’s difficulties

Well so much for the Bitplane.    Don’t have a runway long enough to park it anyhow.

As for the ticket,  Dubya is termed limited out and Forty-One is most likely enjoying  his retirement too much.    However Jeb is still available.    As the the Cheney portion of the ticket, I suggest Liz.   I can just see Chrissy Matthews imploding.

Hat tip:  Rick, Wizbang.

By Karen Jones

As I sit on Bus 77 that cruises up and down Massachusetts Ave., I look down at all the cars on the street. The bus is much taller than the privately owned cars; so, I sit up in my crow’s nest spying on people.

I ride public transportation almost every day because I don’t have a car anymore. I had to leave it behind when I left for school. The bus-riding has created a new perception of vehicles for me. Instead of a car, it looks like a capsule which insulates the driver from the rest of us out here.

The encapsulated don’t have to deal with the riffraff of humanity. I read this on Ask.com:

“I once heard in a documentary about steamboats on the Mississippi River that while the wealthy could afford to travel on steamboats, poor people could not and used small rafts that were called “rift rafts”. From that came the term ‘riffraff,’ meaning poor people, and later, ‘people with whom you did not wish to be associated.'”

I find the contrast interesting. Back then, droves of rich people rode on the big vessel together and the destitute had their own, smaller skiffs. Now things are reversed.

When did it become “better off” to be separated from other people?

I know Donna looking for Christmas tree big enough to hold a  Kenworth.  However as for me, I have a simple request,   if all you know about  me is my race, white, European, you don’t know me well enough to need be bothered buying a Christmas present.    The New York Times suggestion that you can use a person’s race to determine their political beliefs and what would be an appropriate present is simply absurd.

Hint, hint, Bit, I’ve always thought that a  Breakfast Scramble version of the Bitliner would be kind of nice.