Father of Palin’s Grandson to Pose for Playgirl

“Posing nude for Playgirl is next for the 19-year-old father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild. Johnston’s attorney, Rex Butler, said Wednesday that a formal agreement has not been reached with the online magazine but adds it’s a “foregone conclusion” it will happen.” Read more from AP

The world of wi-fi is to become a whole lot easier thanks to a major technology upgrade, says an industry group. The Wi-Fi Alliance said it would soon finish work on a new specification called Wi-Fi Direct. It will let wi-fi devices like phones and laptops connect to one another without joining a traditional network.  Read more at BBC News Technology

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

• THE FIRST THING NEEDED IS AN ENEMY: … a scapegoat. The left has long held Limbaugh in that position.  Mark Steyn this morning comments:
  

  For some reason, Rush Limbaugh’s mooted purchase of a sports franchise has prompted CNN and others to distribute far and wide what appear to be entirely fabricated racist quotes by Rush. As Tim Blair points out:

  Bizarrely, nobody running these career-killing “quotes” seems to question why they weren’t of previous interest.

  Just so. What’s the theory here? He said these things on the air in 2006 and nobody noticed? 2001? Maybe 1995, back when Clinton was blaming him for Oklahoma City? Hey, let’s not get hung up on details. Just because nobody can find any evidence anywhere of Rush saying these “quotes” doesn’t mean he didn’t say ’em.

  But meanwhile, look what gets a pass, courtesy of Ed Morrissey:.

  Here’s the part of the transcript you need:

  CHRIS MATTHEWS: You guys see Live and Let Die, the great Bond film with Yaphet Kotto as the bad guy, Mr. Big? In the end they jam a big CO2 pellet in his face and he blew up. I have to tell you, Rush Limbaugh is looking more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come. Not yet. But we’ll be there to watch. I think he’s Mr. Big, I think Yaphet Kotto. Are you watching, Rush?

  OK, not racist, but wanting to kill Limbaugh? No shock from Tingles, I suppose. Nor of Charles Johnson, who by now has clearly labeled himself a complete fool, or a leftist tool, or both. The foolishness I can understand. It’s his outright willingness in being a tool for the left that blows my mind.Reverse the roles, however, and see if the scenario plays out the same in your head.  If it doesn’t, there’s something extraordinarily amiss here.

• SPEAKING OF REVERSING ROLES: Can you imagine this report coming out during the Bush administration, and the reax to it from the usual suspects? You know, the ones maintaining their silence on this thing now. … No? Well, I can’t either.

• AND LET”S NOT FORGET THE WAR ON BECK: That continues apace.

• YET ANOTHER FRONT IN THE WHITE HOUSE WAR ON AMERICA…  Michelle Malkin, today:
  

  

  Michelle Malkin

  First, the White House goes to war with Fox News.

  Now, if Democrat Rep. James Clyburn is to be believed, it looks like the First Lady is spoiling for a tiff with the state of South Carolina.

  Is there anyone Team Obama isn’t willing to alienate these days?

  Via the SC Post and Courier:

  U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Friday that a conversation with White House staff left him with the sense that a hostile environment in South Carolina is keeping the first lady from visiting.

  The high-ranking South Carolina Democrat said he has received more than 100 invitations for Michelle Obama. But this summer when he brought one of those requests to her staff on behalf of his alma mater, South Carolina State University, Clyburn said her security was an issue.

  The conversation came after former Richland County GOP activist Rusty DePass suggested on Facebook in June that an escaped zoo gorilla was not harmful because it was probably one of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors. DePass’ comment was coupled with a remark in July from U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican. DeMint said that beating the president’s health care plan would be a ‘Waterloo’ moment for Obama.

  Congressman Joe Wilson’s ‘You lie!’ outburst during Obama’s joint address on health care reform last month didn’t help either, Clyburn said.

  ‘A lot of it has to do with the fact that the climate in South Carolina just is not good, and that’s a shame,’ Clyburn said at a roundtable discussion at his Columbia office.

  ‘I do believe it is keeping her away from this state,’ he said.

  Well, the answer to Michelle’s question, as I pointed out the other day appears to be ‘No, there is nobody they will not alienate to maintain the illusion of massive support for their doings… none at all’.

• IMUS WINS: Look, the guy’s a bit of an idiot frankly, but it’s interesting to note that Fox Business Channel is now clobbering CNBC with Imus.
• MILITARY SETTING RECRUITMENT RECORDS: So notes James Joyner. He has some inter5esting comments to add.
• UNIONS NOW AGAINST THE BAUCUS BILL: Mostly because it reduces the level of care… to their members. Gee. Amazing what a little threat of personally charged reality can do, isn’t it? See, here’s the problem. In spite of Obama’s promises to the contrary, this monster is going to raise taxes on working families.    Britt Hume at Fox has something to say on why that’s true:
• GIANT RABBIT? Personally, I’d cut down on the Tequiela, Glenn.
• BUMPERSTICKER OF THE DAY: Seen by Matt Marotta in Downtown SanDiego:

Funny thing about that; When I had my van, the tag said “BITSBOX”. Thanks Matt. I note the poor sap has a ticket waiting for him, too.

From the Palm Treo, on the road:

Rep Rbt Wexler, (Florida’s answer to Cynthia McKinney) whose district includes Broward and Palm Beach Counties, will reportedly be resigning today. There’s a presser to happen at Boca later this morning, I’m unsure what time. There’s some speculation that he’s going to get a Obama appointed job, such as an ambassadorship to Israel…. but the inside money seems to be on hm heading up some non-profit or other, Possibly USAID, (Eh….doubtful) or possibly a think tank he’ll set up, that will focus it’s attentions on the middle east. (Seems the best bet at the moment)

Now, of course those reports don’t rule out the idea that any one of them could be also Obama requested/directed. If that is true, it would indicate a whole new area for Obama and his leftists to screw up.

Elizabeth L. Cheney, Debra Burlingame and William Kristol have launched a blog, Keep America Safe, here is their debut video:

Something tells me that Anita Dunn won’t like it.

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

• BRUCE JENNER: ... clearly has a grip on reality, and apparently still has the testicular mass to say the truth plainly. But is this really headline stuff? Don’t misunderstand, more power to him, I say.  But is the ability and the inclination to speak the truth clearly and plainly such a rarity anymore that it deserves this kind of treatment?  Maybe it does, but I wonder about the state of our culture, and our country if that’s true that he’s a rarity in that regard.
• DUMB “REFORM”: Is there anybody left in the country who really thinks that the Democrats are about reformatting health care to save you money?  Did you notice the report from Price Waterhouse on the impact of the Healthcare monster currently residing in the Senate Finace Committee? John Hinderaker did. The report  is both comprehensive and intuitive and yet as has been so often the case in the past, the Democrats immediately pounced on the messenger, and not the message. Says John:
  

  Democrats responded angrily to the PWC report. AARP, which risibly denies that it is in the bag for the Dems, called it “fundamentally dishonest.” A Baucus spokesman called the report “a hatchet job.” The Democrats’ denunciations are hollow, however. It is possible that they could have read the report before condemning it–it is only 26 pages long–but the PWC report relies mainly on statistical work done by the Hay Group, which is not part of the report and to my knowledge has not been made public. In any event, even if the Democrats had access to the Hay Group’s work, they couldn’t possibly have had time to analyze it.

  Apparently, they consider the message unassailable .Else, as John suggests, they’ve had as much time to actually read and analyze the report as they’ve had time to read and analyze, say, the actual health care bill, or perhaps the TARP nonsense.

  It actually would be very easy to make health insurance cheaper. All we have to do is allow insurance companies to compete nationally instead of state-by-state and eliminate all mandates that limit consumer choice. It has been estimated that these simple reforms–which are not part of any of the Democrats’ “reform” bills, for obvious reasons–would reduce health care costs by one-quarter to one-third. Instead of such common-sense reforms, the Dems are proposing Rube Goldberg measures that will make health care more expensive. Instead of eliminating mandates, their measures, including the Baucus bill, increase them–in effect making cheaper health insurance illegal.Once more: this isn’t reform, it is stupidity.

  Well, yeah, but it does have the quality of turning the whole mess over to the government. Frankly, that was always the point of this exercise.  Unless and until we start viewing this whole mess through that filter, none of it is ever going to make any sense whatsoever. I think it clear that the only way this thing is ever going to end up, if it manages to get itself into law, is with higher premiums, higher taxes, and a Healthcare system with all the responsiveness of the post office or the DMV.  Personally, I wonder what the democrats are going to be saying in terms of excuses when these increased bills lower service levels and so on all come home to roost?   NRO puts up some interesting numbers from that report. I have little doubt that NRO will be on a White House enemies list, soon enough.

• SNOWE JOB: Will someone please explain to me of what advantage is is to Republicans in general, much less conservatism, to allow Olympia Snowe to retain her position as a member of the GOP? I recognize, of course, that the ask is nigh to impossible.
• RICHARD NIXON CALL YOUR OFFICE: Speaking of enemies lists,   I wrote extensively yesterday about how the White House is apparently working from an ‘enemies list’ which obviously includes anyone who dares question the Chosen One.  I got a bunch of notes from all over suggesting correctly that the last president to operate in that fashion was Richard Nixon.  And there are others, of course, who have suggested in the past that Obama has had a Nixon moment at one point or another.  Amazing, accomplishment given the man is only been in office for less than a year.  Even with that aside, the evidence is piling up that this White House has gone into full CYA mode. That seems to me and ominous sign for both our immediate future and for our long-term future   Let’s remember that the response to Richard Nixon, other than drumming him out of office, was replacing him at the next electoral opportunity with the walking disaster that was Jimmy Carter.  I can only imagine a Republican with a Jimmy Carter stature and what that would do the country.
• THEY SEE IT COMING: Gold at record highs. Dollar weakens sharply.  Gee, do you suppose it has anything do to with all the spending Obama’s been doing?  With a weaker United States, is it any wonder the Euro -wienies love Obama? They’re getting what they wanted. Meanwhile, we get the higher costs and the pink slips as our country fails under the sheer weight of Obama’s socialist policies. Someone… please convince me this isn’t happening.

Update!  The first hour of today’s show will also include discussion about today’s surprise announcement of Jeff Boeyink joining the Iowa’s Terry Branstad for Governor campaign!  Don’t miss it!

This week, once again, I will be hosting the internet rafio show The Bean Walker Live at Des Moines Local Live!  The show airs Tuesday from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.  During the first hour we will be talking about the Iowa Gubernatorial Candidate Forum this past weekend, the situation with the Iowa state budget, and Friday’s CBO report on the benefits of Tort Reform.  During the second hour, we will have Pastors Quintin Stieff and Dan Wentworth from Valley Church in West Des Moines to talk about a new program at Valley Church called “Love You Des Moines!”.

Join us!

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

• LACK OF ACCOMPLISHMENT: They’re starting to recognize, over on the left that the continual campaign mode of Mr Obama is not indicative of any actual accomplishments.  Jules Crittenden takes it all in and opines:
  

  It’s dawn over Provincetown. Pick your issue. Lots of talk, not so much walk. Good thing, considering most of his positions. As for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, he’s got a pretty good excuse, which is that middle of a hot war is not the best time to start social engineering the military. He’s too busy trying to figure out how to screw up the actual war stuff. Not to dictate to the LGBT crowd, but given his political displays to date, is this the guy you want advancing your cause?

  The answer, looking around the ‘sphere today appears to be “no”.  Nobody’s hearing anything new.  Lots of empty promises. Given the stated agenda, it seems to me that Obama’s lack of accomplishment here isn’t a bad thing at all. But it is of a piece with the discussion we had over the weekend about the Nobel Prize being awarded in spite of a lack of accomplishment.  The president got itself elected based on what he said, not what he actually accomplished.  Similarly he managed to get the Nobel prize award, not based on any actual accomplishment, but on what he said.  The left-o-sphere’s reax to his Saturday speech tells me that they are starting to get the message that what we have in Obama is a lot of empty promises, and nothing else.which means they’re finally coming to the realization that everybody else had months ago.  About half of us, before the election.

• WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE: And the response from 1600 to all this?  Typically knee-kerk. Even Firedog Lake is miffed:
  

  Those anonymous White House aides are talking tough again, this time about what the New York Times calls “the largest demonstration for gay rights here in nearly a decade”:

  LESTER HOLT: John what we saw in that protest today, was it simply frustration or does it represent a serious problem the President is having with an important part of his base?

  JOHN HARWOOD: As a practical matter Lester I don’t think it’s a serious problem. we’ve seen and certainly Bill Clinton learned that they Democratic President can get punished by the mainstream of the electorate for being too aggressive on social issues so for now I think the administration feels that if they take care of the big issues — health care, energy, the economy — he’s going to be just fine with this group.

  HOLT: But in general when yo look at the left as a whole, have there been conversations about some things they thought would have been done but haven’t?

  HARWOOD: Sure but If you look at the polling, Barack Obama is doing well with 90% or more of Democrats so the White House views this opposition as really part of the “internet left fringe” Lester. And for a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn’t take this opposition, one adviser told me today those bloggers need to take off their pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.

  That is just classic.  After pandering to LGBT leaders last night the truth comes out. Dear gays: grow up and let us get about the serious business of governance. Signed, some dude who’s too afraid to give his real name.

  Uh… Jane? Face it...You’ve been had.  And look… It’s not like nobody told you Obama is a fraud. Oh… and consider this…What you guys are getting here, is exactly what anyone who dares to question the actions of the Chosen One gets. Ask anyone on the right. Indeed I said at the outset … November of last year…that reality was going to overcome socialist these wet dreams that were all supposed to magically come true under Obama.  Face this also… you guys on the left are being taken for granted.  Moe Lane puts it well:
  

  I mean, really: what are you going to do about it?  Vote Republican?

  I do find it amusing though that they chose this to show up with the phrase ‘closely divided’ after so many weeks of being told how Obama had this huge mandate from the people, don’t you? it also strikes me as interesting that as usual the response to any challenge is to try and silence the challenger.   (Not unlike this situation, here. Something of a pattern developing among the liberal loonies. )

• ET TU, ROSS? Doouthat at the New York Times this morning exhibits a substandard gruntlement level with The Chosen One, as well:
  

  

  Ross Douthat

  Obama gains nothing from the prize. No domestic constituency will become more favorably disposed to him because five Norwegians think he’s already changed the world — and the Republicans were just handed the punch line for an easy recession-era attack ad. (To quote the Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, anticipating the 30-second spots to come: “He got a Nobel Prize. What did you get? A pink slip.”)

  Overseas, there was nobody, from Paris to Peshawar, who woke up Friday more disposed to work with the United States because of the Nobel committee’s decision — and plenty of more seasoned statesman who woke up laughing. (Vladimir Putin probably hasn’t snickered this much since John McCain tried to persuade Americans that “we are all Georgians” during last year’s weeklong war.)

  Meanwhile, the prize makes every foreign-policy problem Obama faces seem ever so slightly more burdensome. Now he’s the Nobel laureate who has to choose between escalating a counterinsurgency in Afghanistan or ceding ground to a theocratic mafia. He’s the Nobel laureate who’ll either have to authorize military strikes against Iran or construct an effective, cold-war-style deterrence system for the Middle East. He’s the Nobel laureate who’ll probably fail, like every U.S. president before him, to prod Israelis and Palestinians toward a comprehensive settlement.

  We’ve all seen people get raises and promotions in our daily lives, that they didn’t deserve.  Once in those new positions, they find themselves totally inadequate to the task at hand. The titles, the accolades, the additional pay, will mean nothing whatever to the goal.   All the accolades in all the additional pay and the corner office and so on are simply a set up to a larger failure.  Obama, I think, has been exposed as one of these. And I repeat a link to Boortz on the matter.

• I’M A TERRORIST: No, seriously. Brad Woodhouse, DNC Communications director says so. Ben Smith:
  

  A top Democratic National Committee official reacted furiously to a statement from Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele mocking — and describing as “unfortunate” — President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

  “The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO. “Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize – an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride – unless of course you are the Republican Party.

  “The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim,” Woodhouse said.

  Stupid comment? Certainly. But think now… it’s of a piece with the rest of what we’ve discussed as coming from the White House of late, isn’t it? Silence the challenger. Silence, as a knee-jerk reaction, anyone who dares question The Chosen One.

• FOX NEWS, TOO: Bruce McQuain  correctly points out one more aspect of this “Silence the Enemy” tactic on the part of the Obama White House… the recent spate of attacks on Fox News:
  

  In terms of any sort of media strategy, I really don’t get this – the White House has chosen to take on Fox News as some sort of enemy of the administration?  Why?

  Anita Dunn, communications director at White House had this to say on CNN’s “Reliable Sources”:

  “If we went back a year ago to the fall of 2008, to the campaign, that was a time this country was in two wars that we had a financial collapse probably more significant than any financial collapse since the Great Depression. If you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election what you would have seen were that the biggest stories and the biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and a something called ACORN.”

  

  Bruce McQuain

  Now I have to admit not remembering it that way at all. What I do remember is that Fox was about the only news channel who mentioned Ayers or covered the ACORN shenanigans.

  However, the “biggest stories” she complains about were mostly covered by opinion shows like Hannity, not the news arm of Fox. And I don’t think that Hannity has ever claimed to be anything but a conservative commentator. Finally, it seems that other news organizations should have been following ACORN a little more closely, given recent events.

  Exactly so, Bruce. And this attack on Fox is just one more aspect of the attemnpt to silence all who dare question the Chosen One.  Oh… and Bruce? You’re quite right. Stupid move. But the consistency of the type of response across this and all the other little points I’ve mentioned today is at least suggestive that it’s one that was planned… and that they, lacking a ‘fairness doctrine’ at the moment,  HAVE no better response.

• GOP HAD BEST WATCH OUT TOO: This story surprises me not at all.
  

  The “Taxpayer March on Washington” proved that conservatives can turn out in impressive numbers to protest the direction of the Democratic-led federal government, but it also presented Republicans with a tricky task in figuring out how to marshal the energy on display on the Mall Saturday.

  Wrong. Dead wrong.  The GOP had best figure out something The Politico has not, nor have the Democrats for that matter… their task is not to marshal that energy, but to get behind it.  We’ve discussed several times over the years how Bill Clinton was repeatedly a bowl to lie his way into the position leadership… turning, essentially, a Lynch mob into a parade that he was leading. The tea party types, for their part, are far sharper than to let the GOP try to pull the same thing. The only way out of this for the GOP is to start fighting for the values of those tea party types. After all, the polling numbers are suggesting the Tea partiers have more support than the GOP does just now.

Over in the UK, The Spectator notes;

Here is a little quiz. The Guardian has posted up a list here of everyone who has won the Nobel Peace Prize since its inception.

Q: Which three names are omitted from the Guardian list ( even though they do appear on the Nobelprize.org list which the Guardian has purportedly reproduced)?***

A: Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

And what is the common link between these three names? Precisely.

Oh, I’m quite sure it’s simply a clerical error. Right?

They later update that the list has now had those names added. But one really must wonder why it took a jab like that to get them to correct a problem which absent alteration of the list as supposedly reproduced, should never have occurred.

Personally, I’d like to see their explaination for this one.

I’m afraid I have to take a chunk out of the backside of Rick Moran:

Rick Moran

The Baucus bill hasn’t a chance of surviving a conference committee between the House and Senate. But it might have if the GOP worked to improve it rather than be terrified of their wild eyed base who sees any cooperation with the Democrats in trying to govern the country as tantamount to a betrayal of conservative principles.

The fact of the matter is, that under these conditions any bill that becomes law is going to be a direct betrayal of the ideals of minimalist government. On that basis, who was going to take them seriously when they start preaching that ideal? Nobody, and rightly so.

Please consider whom and what it is you’re suggesting compromise with.

Oh, and Rick? I think your reference to Disraeli dubious at best. Parse this quote of his out within the context of the British form of government.

“No Government can be long secure without a formidable opposition.”

When a Brit refers to a “Government” he’s not talking about a government in the long view, over a period of decades. He’s talking about a British government as constructed from election to election in thjis case, in the 1830’s. Bringing that up to date, a Margaret Thatcher led government, or a Tony Blair led government as examples.

Translated then into our American context, in the current situation, what Disraeli is saying is that the Democrats won’t last long because of their self-destructive tendencies, assuming they have nobody to oppose their own idiocy. A look at both the lack of traction Republicans are getting just now, in spite of the self-destructive tendencies of Democrats would seem to confirm this point.

Let’s also remember that the book in question also gave us the quote:

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for Antiquity, it offers no redress for the Present, and makes no preparation for the Future.

… an assertion that is so plainly and unarguably dead wrong, that it’s a wonder anyone but outright liberals will quote him at all.

Steve Benen:

WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT?…. Yesterday’s White House press briefing was pretty lively, with, as one might imagine, plenty of questions about the Nobel Peace Prize. CBS News’ Chip Reid’s interests stood out, but not in a good way. (via BarbinMD)

Reid said, “I mean, most Democrats have praised it, and most Republicans have said, ‘You have got to be kidding me — Ronald Reagan didn’t get one, but Barack Obama, nominated 12 days after he was sworn in, gets a Nobel Peace Prize.’ And the fear among some, even some Democrats, is that this is going to widen the partisan divide and make things even more difficult to accomplish on every front.”

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tried to move on, responding, “I’ll leave the pundicizing to the pundits.” But Reid wasn’t through, complaining that the award itself may be “a partisan thing,” because previous winners include Al Gore and Jimmy Carter. Gibbs noted that Teddy Roosevelt also won, and again tried to move on.

Reid kept pushing. “But Ronald Reagan, could I just ask you to respond to that?” the corresponded added. “The man who helped bring the Cold War to an end….”
…when White House correspondents from major news outlets start sounding like members of Grover Norquist’s “We Love Reagan” fan club, it’s not a positive development.

So, where’s your post denouncing Chris Matthews’ leg tingles, hmm??

And the thing is, that’s just one example of things you’ve apparently no problem with, so long as Obama gets to look good in the eyes of the press. Anyone questioning him brings your ire asz in this article. THe fact is, Steve, you yourself have become a cheering section for Obama.  Therefore any complaints from you about Reid, or anyone else at this point, daring to question stuff like this,are already less than credible.

So, to answer your “What kind f question is that?”, it’s one you yourself would ask, were GWB to have gotten an award Obama did not. Thing is, you know that already.

Not to worry, though… Bush would never get an award from the liberals running the Nobel, as we’ve already discussed here.

When you’re a leftist and you  lose the BBC, you’ve lost,period.

An article posted this monring by Paul Hudson, thier “Climate Correspondent” dares to suggest that the argument over clobal warming is far from over, concluding:

One thing is for sure. It seems the debate about what is causing global warming is far from over. Indeed some would say it is hotting up.

The only people who apparently having gotten the message is the leftists.

The Nobel committee has a least done one think,  John Bolton, from  Robert Costa, National Review:

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells NRO that President Obama should decline the Nobel Peace Prize. “The Nobel committee is preaching at Americans, but they won’t be deceived,” says Bolton. “He should decline it and then ask to be considered again in three or four years when he has a record.”

Agrees with Mickey Klaus, Slate:

What Obama Should Do With His Nobel Peace Prize

Turn it down! Politely decline. Say he’s honored but he hasn’t had the time yet to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Result: He gets at least the same amount of glory–and helps solve his narcissism problem and his Fred Armisen (‘What’s he done?’) problem, demonstrating that he’s uncomfortable with his reputation as a man overcelebrated for his potential long before he’s started to realize it.

Sound advice.  I’d be shocked in the one heeded it.

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

• MISLABELING CONSERVATISM: Melissa Clouthier says Steven Hayward’s got it wrong.
  

  I don’t have time for a fisking right now, but I thought I’d address this little gem from Steven Hayward’s article in the Washington Post:

  Today, however, the conservative movement has been thrown off balance, with the populists dominating and the intellectuals retreating and struggling to come up with new ideas. The leading conservative figures of our time are now drawn from mass media, from talk radio and cable news. We’ve traded in Buckley for Beck, Kristol for Coulter, and conservatism has been reduced to sound bites.

  

  Melissa Clouthier

  This is utter bunk. There is no question that the conservative movement is still coalescing after years of being thwarted by…Republicans. The Republican party has moved away from conservative principles and toward the mushy, ideologically incoherent middle.

  Exactly. What’s happening here is Hayward is mislabeling conservatism so as to push the ” mushy, ideologically incoherent middle” Melissa speaks of. That is exactly the nonsense being promoted by Hayward, here.  From the POV of that mushy middle, the conservatives are the enemy as is anyone who effectively communicates and promotes conservative ideals.  Such is what we invite in with “Big Tent”  philosophy. It’s how we ended up with the Bush family twice, for example.  Let’s remember the question of just who and what, conservatives are suppsoed to be making compromises with, hmm? And notice, please, the nopises coming other sources are similar to what Hayward is spewing.

• SERVING AS A FINE EXAMPLE: If you think the Democrats  aren’t in serious trouble going into the next election, perhaps a look at this list will give you a clue.  Everyone on that list is on the bubble or worse.
• THE NOBEL PRIZE: I note with mild interest David’s post of earlier today regarding the Nobel peace prize and a Barack Obama. David correctly points out that Mr. Obama has not achieved anything save soaring rhetoric. Interestingly,  Lech Wakesa says the same.  Which of course places David into some rather heavy company.   What most people don’t seem to understand is for liberals, soaring rhetoric is all that’s necessary.  Any weekly accomplishing something need not apply.  Thus it is that quadriplegics from the leftist point of view, can be considered fireman, for example.  Its intentions, not accomplishments.  They are trying, you see, to promote a particular point of view, a particular worldview.  Which is precisely why we ended up with a terrorist and a moron being given the Nobel peace prize for peace that never occurred, in the case of what David mentions…. and to that list I add Al Gore.   It’s also we have such an outpouring of praise for Mr. Obama, given the same utter lack of actual accomplishment.  The Nobel committee is a group of committed leftists, committed to bringing the world around to their point of view.  It’s been that way for at least all of my 50 years, and in fact longer than this.  The Nobel committee has long since rendered itself an embarrassing joke.  Privately, around the network this morning, there are a lot of pundits who are quietly suggesting that this was an attempt on the part of the Nobel committee to reinforce a failing presidency . Boortz adds some brilliance, here:
  

  First – you have to come up with a definition of “peace.” There’s a Nobel Prize for physics; one for medicine too. In virtually every culture and every country in the world you define “physics” and “medicine” pretty much the same way. Not so for “peace.” During the post World-War II the Soviet Union defined “peace’ as “an absence of opposition to world Communism.” As long as nobody was challenging their communist expansionism they felt we were all at peace. Let some country; The United States for instance, challenge their plans for world domination and … no more peace.

  For me any definition of “peace” must have a component dedicated to freedom. You can, after all, live a life of peace in a jail cell, so long as there isn’t someone there to stir things up. You’re not free, but peace reigns.

  Now … to Obama and the Peace Prize. I take you back again to that Pew Research poll conducted in Europe last year. Almost 60% of Europeans who responded to the poll wanted America to be less powerful in world affairs. That’s not an uncommon sentiment – right up until the time some other country is threatening to kick some international tail.

  So … along comes the Nobel committee. Can we reasonably assume that this committee reflects much of the European attitude? I mean, they’re not exactly headquartered in Boise. They look at the nominations before them, and there’s PrezBO! Now what has Obama done in the past nine or so months? Why, he’s given the Euro-weenies just exactly what they wanted! Now we have a United States with a weaker presence in world affairs! Russia and China are striving for military domination. Obama backs off the American promise of a shield against Iran’s missiles for Eastern Europe. Then we have the Arab states reportedly working to replace the dollar as the petroleum trading currency. Today there are suggestions that Obama is just going to declare that the Taliban are too entrenched in Afghanistan for us to possibly prevail there – a prelude to a cut and run. Does any of this sound like a projection of strength? Of course not. America is projecting feel-good, hopey-changey weakness at every turn.

  This was a message to Obama. Europe likes your style.

  Exactly so.This award is a political statement on the part of the Euros… the guys who want a weaker America. Do the math, gang.

• SNOW IS JUST A FOUR LETTER WORD: Thing is, they’re  expecting some in Chicago on Sunday. Personally, I blame global warming.  And why not, it works for them.

Barack Obama

Note the first two, Yassar Arafat and Jimmie Carter, won a Nobel Peace Prize for supposedly bringing peace to the Middle East.  Now Barack Obama, with the same intent, Middle East peace, has won the same prize,  from the Associated Press:

OSLO, Norway – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

I extend to Obama the same respect that I do the first two names, Arafat, a terrorist and Carter, naive fool.

Alas the poor Nobel Committee.   At least Arafat and Carter had an agreement on paper.   All Obama has, is his soaring campaign rhetoric.   This is a poor choice even by the standards of Stockh0lm.