Surprising?  No.  Dangerous?  Definitely. 

Hey Martin:

…and says to you, “One of my favorite political philosophers is Adolph Hitler.”

You gag back your outrage or you say “are you insane?” Or you just excuse yourself and keep moving.

O.K., suppose someone from the White House gets up in front of an assembly of students out at the local high school and says, “One of my favorite political philosophers is Mao Tse-Tung.”

Ricketyclick has the video of just that, with the appropriate notation that Mao was by far the greatest mass murderer in recorded history.

What sort of sickness has installed itself in the White House? Seriously, what sort of White House has a “communications director” who goes out and says that to a group of high school students?

Update:

From Roger Kimball, this surprising note:

N.B.: Anita Dunn is not just an Obama hanger-on. She is part of his inner circle, one of his top aides, along with David Axelrod, Rahm Emmanuel, and Robert Gibbs. What does it mean that someone in that position proffers one of the greatest monsters the world has ever seen for emulation?

(Sigh) Martin, love ya, but I’ll tell you the truth…  This stuff was so eminently predictable as to make the shock on many faces nigh on laughable.  The only thing that surprises me about any of this is in any one considers it surprising.  A look at the last three administrations from the Democrat party shows a pattern that should’ve established their leanings in the minds of the American people back in the seventies.  We spoke of this trend here at BitsBlog last November.  The warnings went up on this site about what America had opened itself up for.  entrust me, if I can figure this stuff out, anybody giving it more than a few seconds thought can,  as well.

And yes of course the media is going to ignore the story.  Understand; they’re part of the deal.  Notice that any press organization that actually reports the news , is immediately set upon not only by the White House but by their leftist colleagues in the fifth estate.  This was predictable as well.  It’s precisely what happened both in Germany and in Russia’s early days.  It’s what’s happening down and Venezuela, right now.  It’s what’s been happening in Cuba for 50 years.  Let’s be honest about this aspect.  If the White House was under the control of a Republican, and said Republican Tried to exert as much control on the press as Obama has done as a matter of routine since taking office would be seeing the press standing up against him.  The New York Times would be breaking every law in the book to try and dethrone said Republican President.  Since, however, we’re talking about a Democrat whose minions aspire to emulate Mao, the press becomes a nice little lap dog.

Comments also at Q&O

Micheal Wade over at Q&O asks an interesting question:  Will Balloon Boy Be The New Schiavo?

I truly hope that I’m wrong. That cooler heads will prevail. That, if indeed the parents set this whole thing up as a publicity stunt, the local authorities will handle it sternly, yet quietly. “We” don’t need to be involved, and even more importantly, there is no reason at all that Congress should be sticking it’s nose into the situation.

But I can’t help but think, given how the GOP so successfully delegitimized itself in the now-infamous Terry Schiavo case, somehow or another they will find a way to do so here.

Frankly I don’t think that the GOP delegitimized  itself in that case at all.  Standing on principle, and standing on moral grounds, delegitimizes nobody, in my view.  Frankly, as much as I like Michael, I have to say that trying to draw a parallel between the two instances is rather like trying to draw a parallel between stones and waterskiing.  For one  thing, even at this stage of the game it’s not entirely clear where government intervention started, in that case.

Those  points aside,  Michael suggests that the whole thing is a bit of a diversion in the way he writes the article.  There are apparently a number of people in the comments who would agree with him. I tell him in the comments …

While I tend to agree that the balloon brouhaha is a nifty little diversion, I have a different take is to what it’s a diversion from.

Let’s assume, just for argument, that the GOP decides to start raising hell about the modern day version of the “flight of the navigator”. Just who would they propose slipping any legislation by? Seems to me than any calls for action at this point would require a democrat involvement, and they have legislative problems of their own that the moment.

If anyone gets affected by the massive news coverage of “Gone with the Helium” it’s going to be the party in power. After all , and as I say, the whole thing makes a rather nifty diversion from the walking disaster that is Washington DC, these days, with them in charge.

I mean, really; is the real issue here that the Republicans are gonna jump on something, or that the press already did… and why?  As I said, in the nightly ramble, Friday night, can we possibly get to some real news coverage, now?  Like for example, might we try investigating some of the malfeasance being exhibited by the Obama administration?  Please?

“The ‘R’ or ‘D’ next to your name is irrelevant when other nations need help,” Obama said at a forum on community service, called to celebrate former President George H.W. Bush, who helped invigorate the movement’s modern era 20 years ago.  While you might not always know it by watching the cable news shows, I think we stand at one of those moments,” he said, predicting a new boom in public service.”
Read more at Houston Chronicle

I noted the other day an article in the Wall Street Journal by Naftali  BenDavid, with the headline: Tea-Party Activists Complicate Republican Comeback Strategy. As you might expect from the title, the piece comes out in the first para to complain:

The rise of conservative “tea party” activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party’s quest to regain power. But they’re also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win.

No. They’re waging war on people running as Republicans, who aren’t. Of what advantage is having Republicans in office who don’t govern as such?

I dare to suggest to you that the Tea-Party folks aren’t making the process of getting Republicans elected harder, but easier. They’re not complicating the comback, the Tea-party people ARE the comeback that the GOP has been praying for. Thing is, the GOP leadership cannot see it. They’re still treating their own base as if it was the enemy. I wrote past March in a Pajamas Media article:

The reactions of the establishment and the establishment wannabes to such people as Sarah Palin, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, and other personalities within the party who appeal to the base have been remarkable. The criticism of Sarah and Joe was fairly mild by most political standards. But the message was clear: such people are in ill favor with the establishment.

Alas, the GOP leadership seems as bent on distancing themselves from the TeaParty types now, as they were from the Palins and Wurzelbacher’s of last March. I said then:

The suggestion by the elites is that those principles need to be ditched if Republicans want to regain power. The major critique is not whether they are effective spokesmen for the cause.

Sadly, what I’ve been seeing the last couple of days in a lot of the anti-grassroots traffic coming out of CPAC is that we’re about to repeat the history of the pre-Reagan years. Then, Republicans lost sight of their principles and ended up aping the Democrats in promoting the worst aspects of the welfare state.

I say now that this is exactly where we are. We still have a GOP more interested in getting itself elected by means of compromised principles, than they are in representing it’s rank and file. Donald Douglass pointed out recently, that

“Democrats have nothing to fear from today’s Republican Party leaders. That’s why Democrats have taken to targeting Rush Limbaugh and others who aren’t in formal leadership positions in the GOP but who forcefully articulate a conservative vision.” —

All of this is the logical conclusion of the Democrats and their politics of demonization.  Look at the reaction to anything even remotely Republican-value driven over the last twenty years are so.  Any news of the day involving any Republican was enough for the Democrats to call a press conference and complain how ‘evil/racist/sexist/anti-progress’ the Republicans were. On every occasion, such events were used to promote the left, and their point of view.  The GOP leadership is desperate to avoid such confrontations, and roll over and play dead every time somebody on the left two sides to complain.  After all, you don’t want to lose the center.  Or, do you?  Why on earth would you want to fight for the values you claim to espouse?

Let’s remember, dear reader, that way we lost the last election so badly, both to the conservative base and the supposed  middle,  who either sat on their hands in their disatisfaction, or crossed the road to vote for Obama, was that the GOP decided to compromise on their principles.  I don’t care WHO you are, or what you think. You don’t sway people in the long run if you’re willing to compromise your principles.  The GOP leadership has spent far too long doing just that, which is exactly why they’re in minority status today in the halls of government.

And let’s get this out there right now…. In that minority status is where they richly deserve to stay, if they don’t start dealing with the base as what it is…  the heart of the Republican party and it’s values.

In an WSJ Editorial this monring Rush Limbaugh goes into some serious detail involving recent events surrounding efforts of a group of which he was a minority interest, to buy the St Louis Rams It’s a worthy read,  and I encourage you all to read it al. But he makes a point I’d like to break out on, just a little:

Rush Limbaugh

The NFL players union boss, DeMaurice Smith, jumped in. A Washington criminal defense lawyer, Democratic Party supporter and Barack Obama donor, he sent a much publicized email to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying that it was important for the league to reject discrimination and hatred.

When Mr. Goodell was asked about me, he suggested that my 2003 comment criticizing the media’s coverage of Donovan McNabb—in which I said the media was cheerleading Mr. McNabb because they wanted a successful black quarterback—fell short of the NFL’s “high standard.” High standard? Half a decade later, the media would behave the same way about the presidential candidacy of Mr. Obama.

And there it is.  The situation is, my friends, that we have not reached a post-racial society, when pointing out that someone the likes of a McNabb is getting special treatment because of his race, is itself considered racism.

I suppose it would be simple to say that what we have reached, instead, is a place not of post racialism, but a place of racial retribution. And there’s truth in that.  Certainly that’s what the race huxters like Jackson and Sharpton have always been pushing… this situation is no different. But look a bit more closely.

This is not about race.  Never has been. If it was about race, why the objection to Justice Thomas? And, while I’m generally suspcious of anything Juan Williams has to say, I’m forced to ask…. what about this…

Note last para of Rush’s piece:

As I explained on my radio show, this spectacle is bigger than I am on several levels. There is a contempt in the news business, including the sportswriter community, for conservatives that reflects the blind hatred espoused by Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson. “Racism” is too often their sledgehammer. And it is being used to try to keep citizens who don’t share the left’s agenda from participating in the full array of opportunities this nation otherwise affords each of us. It was on display many years ago in an effort to smear Clarence Thomas with racist stereotypes and keep him off the Supreme Court. More recently, it was employed against patriotic citizens who attended town-hall meetings and tea-party protests.

Yes, it was. And there’s the key to understanding it… while they’re busy waving the ‘race’ banner, what it really is, is code for ‘not liberal’. If you doubt that deliniation, may I suggest you replay the video, and then do a little research on what happens to black conservatives like Hutcherson.  Like Clarence Thomas.

Let’s put a sharper edge on this. Jaun Williams is a liberal. Died in the wool liberal. An Obama supporter, ostensibly though that’s now seems in some doubt after WIliams has has the chance to watch the guy in action.  But look at that vid again. Look at what happens to him the second he steps outside the liberal, race huxter mantra. He starts getting racist comments tossed at HIM. So, you tell ME…How does anyone farther to the right fare with such people?

Well, now, you know the answer to that, don’t you?

Here’s a few shots of the Erie Canal just west of us here, along the towpath.  If you’re looking at a map, it’s in Spencerport, NY, between Washington Street and Gallup Road. As usual, click on each one to get the full size

Last week, we were forced to say goodbye to our Canine friend, and family member of 16 years. And yes, that’s quite old for a dog.

A wonderful freind, she was, and a great companion. She will be missed.

A video Snark of the Day:

Everything Bo said is all true.  Otherwise it could not be the Snark of the Day.

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

• THE NFL /ANTI-RUSH PLOT THINS:  Joseph Ashby at American Thinker today, says:
  

  Of the four stories run on ESPN.com about Limbaugh’s bid for the Rams (October 6, October 12, October 15, and another October 15) none of them mention that NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith served as counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder and was a member of Barack Obama’s transition team.

  The October 12 article references Smith’s anti-Limbaugh email meant to garner opposition against the radio host’s bid. The report refers to Smith only as the executive director of the NFLPA. Despite the fact that Smith’s opposition was based on Limbaugh’s political commentary, the report failed to mention that Smith’s political connections (including those to whom he donated thousands of dollars) have a vested interest in Limbaugh’s discrediting.

  Well, now.  The opposition did seem a little too manufactured.  Personally, I anticipate nothing to come out of this, since we know full well the press will never touch such a story.  Want proof?  Explain to me how they can have possibly charged Limbaugh with being ‘divisive’ while ignoring the mouthings of one Keith Olberman. Ashby makes an excellent point, too, about the power held by one man:

  Historically politicians have been prone to vindictive and petty behavior, but never in American history has someone had so much power to pummel his political opponents as President Obama. With control over banks, insurance companies, car companies, media (sports media included) and unions (like the NFL players union), Obama tentacles seem to penetrate into nearly every corner of the nation.

  That’s true. Then again, I can recall it happening in German and Russian history.  And Hugo Chavez, and a handful of others as well. The parallels are frightening in their precision, and I think staggering in their impact if they’re ever allowed to come to full fruit. As an example, Reynolds, today, looking at another similar story wonders aloud:

  ….if football is so thoroughly politicized under this gang, why expect that liver transplants will be different?

  Indeed; what aspect of our lives won’t be affected by such considerations?  None. There will be no stopping it. Ask anyone in Venezuela who has been bucking for a promotion, but hasn’t been able to get it because they’re not a Chavez supporter. Germany, Russia, same question. Are you getting the hint yet, America? In all these cases, this is the very nature of socialism.

• ASK ANYONE LOOKING FOR A JOB what the wages have been doing. We know that the Stimulus didn’t help at all. Oh, Hopey Changitude.
• DO YOU NAME YOUR CARS? Some discussion here. FWIW, we do here at Casa de Bit. Just makes a nice shorthand to use, really.  Whimsical stuff, usually. Example:  “Vanna”  was the name for our White Lumina Van, back in the early 90’s  (Vanna White, get it?)
• BALOON LOON: I’ve been watching with a somewhat jaundiced eye, this bit with the Balloon in the Denver area yesterday and the fallout.
  The thing was moving to fast for me to even bother trying to track it on BitsBlog…. And I figure once they got the thing down and found nobody inside that shoulda been the story. A nice little diversion it turned out to be.  Can we get to something newsworthy, now, I wonder?
• LIKE, FOR EXAMPLE: Let’s consider the connection between the big push for Government run healthcare, the resistance to said plan by seniors around the country, and the attempt by the Obama administration to buy them off with taxpayer money.
  
• BITSBLOG BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY: One of our readers, who also reads “Below The Beltway” passes on this one:

Controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders has hailed his arrival in the UK as a “victory for freedom of speech”.
He told a packed press conference in Westminster he was “proud of the UK asylum and immigration tribunal” for overturning the ban.  And he repeated his criticism of Muslim ideology and his call for the Koran to be banned in his native Holland….Explaining his views on Islam, he said: “I have a problem with the Islamic ideology, the Islamic culture, because I feel that the more Islam that we get in our societies the less freedom that we get.”
Read more at BBC News!

Some twit named Erika Bolstad, McClatchy Newspapers, wrote:

WASHINGTON — When Amanda Buchanan and her schoolteacher husband talked about having a second baby, it felt as though there were three people at the table, she told a Senate committee Thursday.

“Myself, my husband and our insurance policy,” Buchanan said

I got news for you lady, pregnancy is not a health  condition.  It is a life style choice.   I you can’t afford to have a child, don’t have one.   No one who didn’t make you pregnant has any obligation to pay for your pregnancy.    You chicks keep telling  me that pregnancy is the woman’s choice.   Well that being the case, it is the woman’s obligation to foot the bill.   You make the choice, you pay the bill.

Erika, insurance was designed to cover unplanned events.    You buy car insurance to pay for your car repair in case of an accident, not tor cover the cost your next oil change or buying new tires.    Just thought that, you would like to know.

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

• THE GOVERNMENT AND MUSLIMS: Well, folks, it went down as I said it would. Some government mucty-mucks have decided to send this girl back to her death at the hands of her ‘father’.  When this girl’s body shows up, will the government types making this ruling take any of the blame, I wonder?  One wonders how these morons sleep at night. And the thing is, killing his daughter that way is within Sharia law. Pam Gellar has been doing a pretty good job following this stuff.  She notes that the girl’s family is set for deporation shortly. Which means if the girl gets killed, wemay never hear about it and the government types will be thus protected from the ramifications of their ‘ruling’.   Meanwhile, we see they’ve already started down the road toward Sharia Law in Britain. Does anyone not see how this plays out? They’re using our sense of ‘fair play’ against us.  Wake up, western world.
• SPECTER IS TOAST: Both Toomey and Sestak are beating him. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving fellow.
• SPEAKING OF TURNCOAT RINOS: Why are we treating the Snowe Job with any respect whatever? Either get someone in there who will vote for us, or make room for someone who WILL get someone else in there. Explain to me what advantage there is in letting her remain in any position of power whatever.. I say in comments at OTB this monring in response to James Joyner:

  

  James Joyner

  Back when Arlen Specter was a nominal Republican instead of the nominal Democrat he recently became, I opposed having him chair the Judiciary Committee. That wasn’t as punishment -I ‘d have given him another powerful chairmanship — but rather because confirming judges is one of a small handful of issues where party unity truly matters

  The trouble there, James is that without ideological unity, Party unity is impossible.

  And frankly, James, I’m far from convinced that party unity across the continental nation is an impossible task. The Democrats don’t seem to view it that way either, if their actions the last few congresses are of any indication. They’re quite willing willing to twist some arms both publicly and privately to get the votes they need to achieve the agenda…. even when they’re in the minority. Their voters seem quite willing to push ‘mavericks’ off the Democrat reservation.
  (Example… Jim Trafficant’s biggest problem wasn’t a any crime committed, but rather than he ran afoul of the Democrat party Agenda. (If the problem was crimes committed, can somebody please explain to me Charlie Rangel and William Jefferson?)

  What we have as a GOP leadership who refuses to stand up and be counted. And that, not calls and actions toward ideological unity within the party is why the GOP was relegated to minority status a year ago. It’s time for the GOP leadership to develop some spine. Alas, I think the task beyond them.

• WHAT ABOUT COUNTRYWIDE? Tapscott thinks it’s time to probe Countrywide’s dealings with lawmakers. I think he’s right, but I wonder who will get the blame.  Given  we’re talking about Democrats “investigating” here, the “investigation” is likely to place the blame not on corrupt Democrats, but on the business folks trying to get along with Democrats in power.
• INFLATION: Glenn Reynolds makes a good point this monring:
  

  THE DOW’S AT ITS HIGHEST POINT IN A YEAR, but the dollar’s at a 14-month low. If you priced stocks in constant dollars, would they be up?

  Yeah, well, just another thing to come out of Obama’s economic fantasy. Don’t be thinking that because the Dow is above 10K, that things are turning around. They’re not.

• TINGLES BACKTRACKS: I see Matthews has recanted his stated fantasy about killing Rush Limbaugh. Gee, getting a little warm, Chris?
• DEMONS AND WIZARDS, AND THE THIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM: I noted this one yesterday on Memeorandum:
  

  Some of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s closest aides, none of whom faced Senate confirmation, earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other Wall Street firms, according to financial disclosure forms.

  The advisers include Gene Sperling, who last year took in $887,727 from Goldman Sachs and $158,000 for speeches mostly to financial companies, including the firm run by accused Ponzi scheme mastermind R. Allen Stanford. Another top aide, Lee Sachs, reported more than $3 million in salary and partnership income from Mariner Investment Group, a New York hedge fund.

  As part of Geithner’s kitchen cabinet, Sperling and Sachs wield influence behind the scenes at the Treasury Department, where they help oversee the $700 billion banking rescue and craft executive pay rules and the revamp of financial regulations. Yet they haven’t faced the public scrutiny given to Senate-confirmed appointees, nor are they compelled to testify in Congress to defend or explain the Treasury’s policies.

  There are a number of reasons I didn’t run this story in yesterday’s Ramble… it was getting too long yesterday, for one thing. But for another that was something that stuck in my craw about the story that I could not quite identify.  Notice, please, that there doesn’t seem to be any mention of such profits being taken by these people being illegal.  It seems to me that this is being brought up surely on moral grounds.  Well, how moral did we expect them to be?  Look at Timothy Geithner himself… an admitted tax cheat.

  It seems to me rather clear, that the press who has been busy for the last two years fawning over all things Obama, is walking a bit of a fine line here.  They want on the one hand to project anyone making lots of money in a free enterprise system as the enemy of the people.  And yet, here’s the treasury Secretary and his troupe of happy minions the raking the stuff in by the bushel… and since they’re being pitched as part of Obama’s ‘hope and change”, they’re kinda limited as to how loudly they can scream about them making money. It’s funny watching them trying to balance these two warring interests.

• KEVIN JENNINGS CALL YOUR OFFICE: Jennings is a name we’re going to be hearing about shortly, along the lines of another Van Jones, I’ll wager.
• BITSBLOG BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY:

Big Lou is gone. The LA TIMES is reporting:

Albano, who was sent home from the hospital earlier this week and place under hospice care, was 76 years old.

Albano is best known to non-wrestling fans as the father in Cyndi Lauper‘s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” video. That helped kick off the Rock ‘n Wrestling connection that launched the then-WWF to national prominence in the 1980s.

They’ve got some vid, too, you’ll want to check out.

Lou Albano

76 does seem a mite early for checkout time, but then again, the man looked like the subject for a PSA about heart attacks. In fact, he had one in  the late 90’s if memory serves.  I guess I’m amazed he lasted as long as he did.  Very much the type A personality with some modifications on the model that made him unique, such a person would be hard pressed NOT to be a success. And successful Albano was.  Wikipedia:

Louis Vincent Albano^[2] (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009) was an American professional wrestler, manager and actor. With an over-the-top personality and a penchant for boisterous declarations, “Captain” Lou Albano was the epitome of the antagonistic manager that raised the ire of wrestlers and incited the anger of spectators. Throughout his 42-year career, Albano guided 15 different tag teams and four singles competitors to championship gold.^[2] A unique showman, with an elongated beard, rubber band facial piercings, and loud outfits, he was the forefather of the 1980s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection. Collaborating with Cyndi Lauper, Albano helped usher in wrestling’s crossover success with a mainstream audience. Capitalizing on his success, he later ventured into Hollywood with various television, film, and music projects.

Another true American character, now gone from the scene.

SIFY MOVIES: Al Martino, the singer of 1960’s hits such as Spanish Eyes and Volare, died aged 82 in his home town of Philadelphia, according to a statement from his publicist Wednesday.

Philly is in mourning, this morning. One if it’s own is gone.

One could hardly be in any kind of radio as I was through the 70’s and 80’s and not play at least one Al Martino record on the air. As a DJ at a Music Of Your Life station… one of the many I worked at over the years, Martino was part of the A list. As a mobile DJ, I carried Martino’s recording of “Daddy’s Little Girl” with me to wedding receptions for a couple decades.

Little bits of my youth keep slipping away.

BBCT: Fellow BitsBlogger Mel Douglass, by way of a note of Facebook.

You’d think they’d learn, even in far-leftist Portland OR: KATU:

ALBANY, Ore. – At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments – but residents have been told they can’t fly any flags at all.

Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag – he said – is his way of showing support.

“This flag stands for all those people,” said Clausen, an Oaks Apartment resident. “It stands for the people that can no longer stand – who died in wars. That’s why I fly this flag.”

But to Oaks Apartment management, Clausen said, the American flag symbolizes problems.

He was told to remove the red, white and blue from both of his rides, or face eviction.

“It floored me,” he said. “I can’t believe she was saying what she was saying.”

Even long-time residents like Sharron White, who has flown a flag on her car for eight years, has been told to take it down.

White said management told her that “someone might get offended.”

Now, KATU points out in an update that the ban was removed a couple days after the story aired on their station. Gee, I wonder why that might be.  Intense public pressure? Perhaps they mis-guessed as to who the offended parties would be?

If there’s anything amazing about this story, it’s that they keep popping up… people still have yet to learn.