Will Books Be Napsterized?

“Until now, few readers have preferred e-books to printed or audible versions, so the public availability of free-for-the-taking copies did not much matter. But e-books won’t stay on the periphery of book publishing much longer. E-book hardware is on the verge of going mainstream. More dedicated e-readers are coming, with ever larger screens. So, too, are computer tablets that can serve as giant e-readers, and hardware that will not be very hard at all: a thin display flexible enough to roll up into a tube.”  Read more at NY Times Business

David suggests in his piece earlier this morning, the Mainstream media will take the biggest damage the Denmark Disaster. Frankly, I tend to agree at least for the initial part. . That would seem to render the disagreement between us less than David makes it. I think also, though, that there will be damage to Obama, but indirectly.

Allow a little ” inside baseball” -like background on the discussion between David and myself.  In a BitsBlog internal memo, I proposed the following:

(What of)… the idea that both the president and the first lady went to Copenhagen hoping to sell Chicago to the IOC on the force of their personalities and their personal popularity…

Question; is it a sign of that the Obama’s popularity is on the wane in the rest of the world, that their overt (And very expensive) sales attempt didn’t work? Clearly, the honeymoon is over here in the states as far as Obama and his popularity are concerned.

Is the IOC vote on Chicago (what was it, 17 of 94 delegates?  ) an indication that his popularity is done in the remainder of the world, as well?

I suspect and suppose the answer to that question is yes, and then in that context, it must be said that Obama himself will probably take the largest hit in terms of trust and popularity , and in fact already has taken such a hit, else the Denmark Disaster would never have occurred as such.

Understand me clearly, here… when I proposed the question, what I was thinking was not so much the MSM or domestic audiences, directly, but first, the rest of the world , who we are supposed to think are well- represented within the IOC.  Europeans, particularly.   Clearly what such people think is supposed to be important to us in the eyes of the domestic  left. You will recall, for example, the multiple visits to European capitals during the presidential campaign. Those appearances were certainly designed for the consumption of domestic, not European, audiences. “The rest of the world loves him, therefore America’s prestige will rise in the world if we elect him “was the message.

In light of what happened in Copenhagen the other day, it seems reasonable to ask if that campaign meme isn’t now disproven.

We can give some way to this also by way of how the left let up to suggest Chicago was all Bush’s fault came up so very quickly …from Roland Burris for example.. The comment was that Bush had ruined our standing in the world, supposedly.  Burris seems to me on a very short leash of late, and so either this comment from him was way out of the norm, or he’s speaking as instructed.  You know they’re on the ropes when they start dishing out blame to Bush… such response is the last of a very short list of things and people to blame for Democrat failures.

Here’s where that indirect damage comes into play;

Clearly, the Democrats know full well that the image is out there now among the Europeans, and supporters in Chicago… Obama wasn’t able to pull this one out, even with all the media- driven  hype. Since we know that much of the Obama mystique here in the states is based on what the remainder of the world supposedly thinks of us, this turn-back of his attempts will be taken as a token of Obama and his honeymoon being over, in the capitals of the world.  Since so much of his domestic mystique is based on that now failing image, that his domestic popularity cannot help but be damaged by it, regardless of the kind of spin that the mainstream media puts on things.

David is quite correct, when he says that the  MSM will take a huge credibility hit over this one.  But that mainstream media credibility hit would not happen unless Obama was taking it on the chin, first. After all, Obama is the reason for the media spin in the first place. And the thing is, I doubt there’s a way any spin the MSM can put up will overcome this image loss for Obama.

The editorial board is divided on what of the price of Barack Obama’s  disaster in Denmark will be borne by the elated one,  Obama himself,  or  the institution with a tingle running up its collective leg, to wit the Main Stream Media.   I gravitate towards the latter.

Obama is man is few accomplishments, colleges he never attended, books he never wrote and legislation he never got enacted.    Yet for reasons unknown to mere mortal man,  the dim one has been hailed as the great intellect, post-racial,  post-political savior who will  stop the raise of the oceans,  end world poverty, provide health care to all illegals, disarm the world and bring back the dime pay phone.    Ok… maybe the last one was asking too much.

The International Olympic Committee has a bunch of old cronies with no interest in any of the above, aside from the dime pay phone.   The idea that the glib one could fly into Copenhagen and get these geezers to act on anything beyond their own private personal self-interests was media fabrication.

Yet sadly much of the public bought the media’s yarn and more so, the media drank its own Jonestown Kool-Aid.    So why the media blind the coming of the the Danish disaster?

Don Surber:

It comes down to respect.

President Obama showed none.

And in the end, the Olympics committee returned the favor by humiliating the president of the United States, according to stories in the Berlingske Tidende newspaper in Copenhagen. The Google translations are a tad rough, but serviceable.

Bruce McQuain, Q and O

And, there was this:

Former IOC member Kai Holm said the brevity of Obama’s appearance — he was in and out in five hours — may have counted against Chicago.

“Too businesslike,” Holm said. “It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect.”

A sort of “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation. Had he not showed up, I’m sure IOC members would have seen that as a “lack of respect” as well. Of course that didn’t stop them from flocking to Obama for pictures during his 5 hour stay

Interesting we have moderate liberal law professor and conservative talk radio host, in essential agreement,  first,Rush Liimbaugh, video:

Hat tip; Gateway Pundit

Obama Copenhagen, video:

Hat tip video and reax:   Ann Althouse:

I’m picturing them thinking: What is this pride? Why would we be proud of you? Why should we give you the Olympics so that you can — what? — boost our self-esteem? Because — why? — we, the world, contain Chicago? Get your nutty American inspirationalism off me. We’re talking about where to site the Olympic games, not who’s the dreamiest city in the world. Why do the games belong in Chicago? What was the argument? It’s Obama’s adopted hometown and it has ethnic neighborhoods, where all the colorful peoples live in peace and harmony?

So when some reporter is going giddy over what great historic feat the dim one is about to accomplish next, ask yourself is factual reporting or just media Kool-Aid?

CBS has a problem and even the New York Times can see it, by Bill Carter and Brian Stelter:

For the intensely private Mr. Letterman, the revelations, which resulted from a bizarre extortion attempt, are sure to be extremely embarrassing, especially as he tries to extend his lead in the late-night contest. “I have had sex with women who work for me on this show,” he told his audience on Thursday night, calling himself “creepy.” He added that he hoped “to protect my job.”

More seriously, they raised questions for both his company and CBS about whether his actions constituted sexual harassment or at least abuse of a power relationship over employees.

A CBS employee in a position of power, to wit David Letterman, has admitted to using his position to extort sex from person, purported be women, who work under him.   Using a position of power to gain sexual favor was classic sexual harassment, at least prior to B.J. Clinton, Nina Burleigh and Monica Lewinsky.

As long as CBS condones such predatory behavior on the part of their employee, the Tiffany Network is guilty of harboring a hostile work enviroment.    CBS fired Don Imus for just one crude remark.    Letterman is a serial predator.  Will the enraged cows speak out against CBS?  I doubt is.   And yes, I am talking about you Susan Estrich.

CBS needs to investigate Letterman’s predatory behavior and make the report available to the public.   Does the casting couch policy only apply to Letterman’s Late Show, or is it standard network policy.   Does it explain Katie Couric’s  anchor job?

An interesting post at Q & O this morning.

David Warren, writing in the Ottawa Ciitzen, takes a look at some of the “Gorbachev/Obama” comparisons that some are doing and finds them wanting.  But, he does find one thing the two men seem to share in common.  Something he calls a characteristic of the post-modern liberal mind:

Yet they do have one major thing in common, and that is the belief that, regardless of what the ruler does, the polity he rules must necessarily continue. This is perhaps the most essential, if seldom acknowledged, insight of the post-modern “liberal” mind: that if you take the pillars away, the roof will continue to hover in the air.

Or a complete and utter disconnection from reality as it functions in this world. We tend to write that seeming disconnect off to arrogance or ignorance, or both.  But in fact, it is a belief based in the following:

Gorbachev seemed to assume, right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and then beyond it, that his Communist Party would recover from any temporary setbacks, and that the long-term effects of his glasnost and perestroika could only be to make it bigger and stronger.

There is a corollary of this largely unspoken assumption: that no matter what you do to one part of a machine, the rest of the machine will continue to function normally.

A variant of this is the frequently expressed denial of the law of unintended consequences: the belief that, if the effect you intend is good, the actual effect must be similarly happy.

Very small children, the mad, and certain extinct primitive tribes, have shared in this belief system, but only the fully college-educated liberal has the vocabulary to make it sound plausible.

I suspect Bruce is onto something here, in a sense that’s larger than even he sees fully.. and he’s usually quite good at picking such things up.

The problem that I see with both the quoted piece and Bruce’s comments,  is that they’re limited to the political and to the economic.  I suspect, however that it is also true of the cultural.  as I say there this morning: “How much of our cultural values can be stripped away, without causing the roof to collapse on the others? I look at areas of the country dominated by the left…. (Chicago for example) and wonder if that collapse hasn’t already begun.”

As I’ve been saying since this site when online and, in fact, for decades before that, the culture is foundational to the political and to the economic.  They cannot be disconnected, one from the other.  Is there any question , for example, that the corruption that is Chicago was brought on by a stripping away of cultural values?  Is there any question in anyone’s mind, that that loss of cultural values has cost them both in terms of the economic, and the political?  I don’t think so.

There is this, as well… The approach taken here in analyzing this business, is certainly more benign than the more obvious interpretation which is that the proponents of these positions, Gorbachev, and Obama , actually intend to pull the house down. How else, after all, to rebuild the country in the image that you see, without airing down portions of it, if not all of it?

And frankly, I find Bruce’s closing comments spot on.

Stink Progress e-farted:

Mission  Accomplished For Conservatives Who Rooted Against America.

Their so-called evidence:

Transcript:

SEAN HANNITY, 9/29: Tonight — Gang violence in Chicago leaves a teenager dead, and the shocking events are caught on tape. Should the President be pushing to bring the Olympics to this city?
…

MICHELLE MALKIN, 9/30: Well, this is all about the president’s Chicago cronies. That’s what this Olympic push is all about. And it starts with Richard M. Daley, the mayor of Chicago. He’s been there since 1989. He would like to see this $5 billion party cap off his long grand tenure. And it’s a great way to white wash all of the city’s ills in the windy city and in Illinois for that matter.
…

PAT CADDELL, 9/29: “Now in Chicago what we’re going to have is gangster politics that will make Al Capone so happy. This is the biggest ever outrage ever done the President of the United States.”
…

BRIT HUME, 9/29: Even if he does though, there are always going to be people who will always suspect he was on a political errand for Mayor Daley of Chicago, who has staked a lot of prestige on landing the Olympics, and a lot of people, I think, will not ever get over that idea.

BRETT BAIER: We’ll cover it.
…

DENNIS MILLER, 9/30: But I would caution the IOC to get ready. If they don’t award this Olympics to Chicago, and thus to President Obama, get ready to be deemed racist. That is the move.

BILL O’REILLY: And Oprah’s there too. They’re going to take a hit.
…

S.E. CUPP, 10/1: But on the other hand? Have you have you been to Rio? I have. It’s awesome. If I’m Rio, I’m not really worried. I mean, I don’t know — there’s conflicting stuff going on here. I’ll be surprised.

SEAN HANNITY: And they have a national holiday on the day of the announcement. So they’re fighting back.

CUPP: Well, Rio’s awesome. No offense to Chicago. I love the Cubs game.

GUILFOYLE: Everybody loves Rio.

CUPP: But Rio is awesome.
…

LOU DOBBS, 10/1: They are there talking — Michelle Obama talking smack with the First Lady of Brazil about the Olympics. Is this an appropriate — well, initiative on the part of the Obamas?

…

GLENN BECK, 9/30: ou know, I wouldn’t think that with everything that’s going on that Chicago and the Olympics would be a priority, but it is for this president, and his gal pal, because remember, they’re playing for all the gold.
…

BILL BENNETT, 10/1: BENNETT: Well, I’m actually for Rio. Somebody made the argument this afternoon — I guess it was Jack Cafferty — who said — and I don’t always agree with Jack, you may know, but he said, Rio, it’s beautiful women at the beach. In Chicago, it’s fat people eating. So, which would you rather see on TV?

ROLAND MARTIN: Have you seen Rio’s crime rate?

BENNETT: But let me say, one good thing — one good thing about Barack Obama going to Copenhagen and arguing for the United States and Chicago is, he is going to have to say some really very positive things about the United States while abroad, which is not something he has been doing.

WOLF BLITZER: All right, guys, on that note –

BENNETT: It will be a good thing. I would love to hear that.

MARTIN: Bill, that’s the first time you didn’t say buy American. I’m can’t believe you’re not supporting America.

BLITZER: Let the record show there are many, many beautiful women in Chicago as well.

So since when was being against hosting the Olympics anti-American?   For the record I have been hostile to the Olympics since the open ceremonies of the Games of the XXIII  Olympiad, or the stinker in Los Angeles.   The year was 1984 and Ronnie was the President.    The Olympics represent everything the libtards profess to hate, nationalism, competition, commercialism,  pomp and victory.    You’d think liberals would cap and trade the Olympics.

None of the evil conservative pundits SP cited said anything unpatriotic about America.   In fact the comments of Bill Bennett et al were considerably kinder to our country than the stump speeches of  Barack and Mitchell Obama.

Now nobody said much nice about Chicago.  but what is there nice to say about Chicago.    It is a crime infested and politically corrupt city.

Nobody does it better.

Hat tip photo:  Telegraph(UK)

The Gunny, b/k/a R. Lee Ermey, is doing a show on edged weapons tonight.   Somehow I think the Gunny will miss ths one,  from an clearly impressed Boingboing:

A quick-thinking farmer’s daughter disarmed a man who broke into her home in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. In a phenomenally bad-ass series of moves worthy of a Tarantino screenplay, 21-year-old Rukhsana Kausar attacked him with an axe, then shot him dead with his own gun. The civilians’ residence is 20 miles away from the ceasefire line between Indian and Pakistani forces. The intruder was reported to have been a combatant from the other side of the border.

Hat tip:  Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.

Points:

• Axes are good, but Bitsblog recommends a good pump shotgun for home defense.
• Noor Mohammad sh9uld be damn proud of his daughter.
• Mikhail Kalashnikov’s   AK-47 certainly qualifies one of the great weapon designers of all time.
• I suspect where Uzafa Shah now resides. all of the seventy-two virgins have axes.
• Sadly the retrograde police took the weapon.  Does not reflect well on the state of civilization as it exists in India.

Now if the Supreme Court could just see fit to allow the citizen of the People’s Republic of Chicago to some freedom

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

• UNEMPLOYMENT AT 9.8%: That’s far worse than was estimated… about double, in fact. And if you count those who have simply giving up trying to locate a job, it goes to 17%. Hope and change.
• WHERE’S YOUR HEAD, ROBERT? Robert Reich was  Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 1997. So it shuld come as no shock that Ol’ Bob is a strong beliver in big govenment. So strong, in fact he can’t see what we pointed out yesterday… that government spending is the problem not the solution to our current economic woes. So it should come as no shock to anyone that he’s come out swinging in favor of even more government spending.
  

  

  Robert Reich

  Let me say this as clearly and forcefully as I can: The federal government should be spending even more than it already is on roads and bridges and schools and parks and everything else we need. It should make up for cutbacks at the state level, and then some. This is the only way to put Americans back to work. We did it during the Depression. It was called the WPA.

  Yes, I know. Our government is already deep in debt. But let me tell you something: When one out of six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, this is no time to worry about the debt.

  Well, no. Actually, Bob it’s exactly the time to be concerned about it… the debt was the cause of the problem, and thereby cannot even on a temporary basis, be the solution to it.

  As James Joyner says this morning and correctly:

  

  James Joyner

  This ain’t 1933.  Most of those hit by the current decline were in service industries — including those requiring rather substantial education and training — rather than unskilled laborers.  Surely, Reich and his follow UCal professors who have suffered salary cuts aren’t going to supplement their income by repairing bridges or cleaning up parks?No worries, though.  In a few years, the Japs will bomb Pearl Harbor again, which will require a massive investment in our defense infrastructure.  That’ll be just the boost we need.

  Heh.  Look, gang… The solution to the issue was demonstrated by Ronald Reagan… lower taxes, and in particular, marginal tax rates. View government as the problem, not the solution. but Robert Reich believes in government as the savior, not the devil, and so will never even consider such ideas… despite those ideas having been proven over and over and reliance on government being shown just as repeatedly as the trap that it is. Now you know where Robert Reich’s head is installed.

• IRAN AGAIN: And a side note to James… it may not be the Japs bombing Pearl, but I’m willing to be Iran will figure prominently in there, given the gross mishandling of the Iranian Nuclear  situation by the Obama White House. Obama has been so bad at this, it is a logical question to ask if it hasn’t been intentionally so.  One cannot possibly be so consistently wrong without some pre planning involved.  Jen Rubin looks at this, this morning:
  

  As the Wall Street Journal‘s editors observe, the Geneva talks have revived the reputation of the despotic regime:

  Responding to an overture from the Obama Administration, the Iranians even talked about the future of the U.N. and other nonnuclear issues. Meanwhile, Washington was “buzzing” (as one newspaper put it) that a one-day visit by Iran’s foreign minister might signal more detente to come. Back in Tehran, Mr. Ahmadinejad floated a tete-a-tete with the U.S. President. In short, this engagement conferred a respectability on his regime that Mr. Ahmadinejad could only have imagined amid his vicious post-election crackdown.

  

  Jenifer Rubin

  And like the missile-defense capitulation, we’ve gotten precious little for this. We’re now sucked into a process of meetings, and the inspection of Qom will take place with plenty of time for the Iranians to “clean the place out.” We now begin the familiar dance of endless talks, quibbles about inspections, and compromises on verification-all culminating in the realization (eventually) that a secretive, despotic regime is on track to engage in nuclear blackmail.

  Of all this Obama seems blissfully unaware. We’re finally engaging! We’re getting down to business. This is constructive, he gushes. Well, for Iran certainly.

  Quite. And it’s so slick, one cannot help but wonder if it wasn’t intended so.  You know,  I wonder if any WWII historians have caught on to the similarity here that James alludes to in his post?  After all, were we not engaged in high level negotiations with Japan even as word of their attack on Pearl reached Washington? Perhaps the Mullahs are better students of history than Obama and understand what a great tool negotiations can be toward flummoxing your enemy. In my view that’s what’s happening here.

• QUICK NOTE TO DAVID BROOKS: The only thing illusionary about Limbaugh, Beck and so on, is the idea that you actually have a grip on why they’re influential and to what degree.  Well, in fairness, let it be said that you, sir,  generally don’t have a grip on much of anything, really.  The fact of the matter is they have a better idea of what’s going on in middle America, then do you.  Example: Has it occurred to you in that great storehouse of knowledge on top of your neck, that New Hampshire might not be middle America?   You disconnection with the facts, is a prime example of the kind of thing that we have come to expect from anyone under the masthead of “New York Times”.  Let me put this as simply and directly as I can.   Get lost. Oh, and I think Stacy may have a thing or two for you as well.  Pay particular attention to this line, David:
  

  

  Stacy McCain

  Nov. 4, 2008, was Crazy Cousin John’s personal defeat, as well as a decisive repudiation of the Republican Party’s leaders, who had utterly abandoned the legacy of Ronald Reagan in favor of the “compassionate conservative” agenda of Bushism, which was nothing but Brooksian “National Greatness” in evangelical drag with a Texas drawl.

  Which brings us rather nearly to….

• THE BITSBLOG BUMERSTICKER OF THE DAY:

Clearly Barack Obama’s alleged  charm is not all the MSM plays it up to be. From a clearly a gasp Associated Press:

COPENHAGEN – Chicago was eliminated in the first ballot of voting for the 2016 Olympics on Friday, a stunning defeat for the city that was expected to be one of the two finalists. Not even the presence of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama — nor a long list of celebrities — was enough to help the United States’ third-largest city.

Where I was wrong.   The Obama circus trip to Copenhagen wa s not a staged dog and pony show.   The competition was real, or the the IOC reneged on a backroom deal.    Normally,  presidents don’t do foreign trips  make agreements.    Do really think Richard Nixon negotiated anything in China?   Rather they do the trip to stage an announcement for an agreement that was already made.    So Chicago’s 2016 bid was not a pre-stage done deal.   Honesty from the Obama administration.   How refreshing.

That said, the trip to Copenhagen was a monumental, if all too typical, display of bad judgment on the part of  Obama.    The President has claimed reform of medical care to be a pressing priority.    Iran is going nuclear.    The  unemployment is nearing ten percent.   The situation in Afghanistan is critical.   And the president trying to chase down a corrupt set of games.    Some judgment .

Now that the distraction of trying to  secure the 2016 games for Chicago is over, maybe the one can get to business of trying to solve some of the nation’s many pressing problems.    Don’t bet on it.

Addendum:

Now which nation gets to waste billlions of dollars hosting those silly games, should be a fairly trivial issue.   Yet the Obamatards fought the ICO decision as if it were a war on necessity rather then one of choice.   Clearly the Obama moon shines less brightly upon the Brits, Tim Reid, Times on Line(UK):

Chicago’s dismal showing today, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft.

Meanwhile, Byron York, Washington Examiner, reports the Obamatard adviser is shocked to learn the the IOC was corrupt:

In an interview moments ago on CNN, Axelrod said, “I don’t view this as a repudiation of the president or the first lady. I think that there are politics everywhere, and there were politics inside that room.” Axelrod said that a former head of the IOC was leading Madrid’s effort for the games, and others involved in other Olympic bids also had connections with the IOC. “As with any process like this, there are all kinds of crosscurrents in the room, there are relationships,” Axelrod said.

If Axelrod only discovered the IOC was corrupt after Obama’s mission failure, Axelrod is incompetent.   If Obama launched Operation Chicago 2016 knowing the corrupt nation of the IOC, Obama was a fool.

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

38 degrees here this morning. Dark and dreary.  The only reason it was even that warm is it was raining. There are times I wish my office didn’t have a window.  This is one such. I still have the task of winterizing my camper in front of me. It’s a task I’ve been holding out on, hoping we could  have one more go with it. But the weather around here today gives me pause on that one. Not that cold bothers me much for camping, we’ve camped often enough in the 30’s… it’s why the trailer has an HVAC system. But rain? Kinda hard to keep a campfire lit, that way. Harder still to keep a spirit lit and happy this way.

• POLANKSI SAGA CONTINUES: The French government has apparently dropped its public support for the release of sex offender Roman Polanski saying that Polanski is neither above norm beneath the law.  All this is, I suppose, is a demonstration of how the French are not of a single mind about this. Not much of a surprise, given that they’re never of a single mind about much of anything.  The amazing part about this is that there is any controversy about it all.
• BY THEIR WORDS, YE SHALL KNOW THEM: Forgive me, but the arguments coming from the Democrats about how opponents to the government takeover of health care are engaged in pure demagoguery, tend to lose some of their bite, when we see nonsense like this. The fact is, they’ve lost the argument and they know it, when they start engaging arguments like this, and particularly when they start doubling down on the silliness.
• SPEAKING OF DOUBLING DOWN ON LOSING ARGUMENTS: Did you notice where Obama has issued an executive order to the EPA to regulate so-called greenhouse gasses, despite any congressional mandate? Astute Bloggers screams… and correctly:
  

  THIS IS FASCISM…FASCISM IN THE SERVICE OF A HOAX – AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, FOLKS: AGW IS A TOTAL EFFIN’ HOAX; IN FACT, THE HOCKEY STICK HAS BEEN PROVEN TO BE A TOTAL FRAUD.PERHAPS THIS IS WHY OBAMA AND THE ECO-LEFT IS ACTING SO SWIFTLY – AND UNDEMOCRATICALLY:

  THEY WANT TO PUT IN PLACE THEI LEFTIST REGULATIONS – REGS WHICH WILL HAMPER CAPITALISM – IN TIME TO TAKE CREDIT FOR THE IMPENDING COOLING PERIOD.

  WE MUST NOT LET OBAMA GET AWAY WITH THIS.

  Make no mistakle about what this monster is going to do to our economy. It will kill it, as intended.

• RICHARD NIXON CALL YOUR OFFICE: So, Countrywide destroyed tapes of conversations with various members of Congress to whom they were giving sweetheart deals.  I think we finally discovered whatever happened to Rosemary Woods.  Darryl Issa’s chasing this one, and thank God for him. Frankly, though, I doubt he’s going to get very far with it.  With the Democrats in charge, the environment simply isn’t there for a serious investigation of , well, the Democrats.
• IRAN, THE BOMB and WHITE HOUSE NON_REACTION: “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” thus go the writings of one Neal Peart  of Rush… likely one of the best drummers in the world.  I do find his politics abominable, but the writing in this case is true enough. Lack of a choice has made the choice for the WHite House. Word this morning from the white house is that they have decided not to issue any further sanctions against Iran, in response to word that they have yet another secret nuclear installation that we didn’t know about. I don’t see the lack of response from the White House to be so much a conscious choice, as one of lack of inertia.    Rick Moran, this morning, examines whether not we’ve already accepted the fact of an Iranian bomb. I’d say offhand, that the White House certainly has.  This, dear reader, is what happens when we engage with people who were not operating in good faith.  That lack of good faith has been demonstrated for decades, now.  Yet, this white house, in the kids idiocy, kept trying.   Part of this, of course, is the recognition that to negotiate properly, you must have something the other side wants to trade for.  Clearly, Iranian mullahs don’t give a tinkers damn for anything but wiping out the non Muslim world.  The president has given Iran exactly what they want in that regard.  As you may imagine I am nonplused. But more, I’m frightened.  What more damaging prospect to wprld peace can there possibly be than Muslim extremists with nuclear weaponry? And what other damage can Obama do to us?
• IN CASE YOU THOUGHT THE BEATINGS WOULDN’T CONTINUE: You were wrong. Yet another young boy having the snot beat out of him, in Chicago, sets the stage for some rather interesting discussion about the Olympics.
• WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS,  BARRY? And while our Dear Leader is busy trying to secure the Olympics for the battleground that is Chicago, the good war, the war in Afghanistan, the one Mr. Obama told us that we must win, goes on being ignored by the White House. The request for additional troops has yet to be answered.  Do you know, 43 soldiers have died since that request was made? Can you imagine the reaction of the press if a Republican were currently occupying the white house, under these conditions? I will guarantee you, that there would be far more interest in photographing the casckets being unloaded at Andrews.
• BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY: It comes to us from Gary Howell via Facebook. If you have a bumper sticker you’d like to see here, send it along to me.
• BANK OF AMERICA PAYING ACORN? Tristan Yates looks at this one. It’s getting thick out there, folks.
• PLEASED: I must say I’m very pleased with the stuff my two co-writers are posting… Mel and David are both doing a spectacular job… and the traffic their stuff is bringing in is testament to that.

For the past 30 years, Roman Polanski has been not just a convicted rapist but a fugitive from justice.

Yes, he’s made some big films in those years. So what?

Yes, he’s traveled freely across Europe during those years, living a very fancy and famous life without being arrested. So what?

Susan Estrich, Rasmussen Reports.

That’s the conclusion drawn in a Wall Street Journal report this morning, that you should read.

Some taxpayer paid moron and Obamatard, Jesse Lee, Whitehouse.gov,  posted this drivel on the peoples’ computer:

Reality Check: Trying to Turn a Point of Pride into a Moment of Shame

Last night Fox News continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration’s efforts to win the Olympics for the United States. In the past, hosting the Olympics has been a source of pride and unity for the country, but once again Fox News’ Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings.

Sure the Obamatards are claiming that the  Chicago Olympic bid is unifying the when in fact the bid is not even unifying Chicago, from Don Babwin, Associated Press:

The opposition is not as visible as the “We Back the Bid” signs plastered across town. But in a city all too familiar with stories of public corruption and problems with public services, there is serious concern the games can only mean more troubles — and bills — for residents.

“I know it’s going to cost us money somehow,” said Joseph Patrick, a 51-year-old stay-at-home dad. “The government doesn’t have a job (so) the only place they can get money is from us.”

The economy is in peril, Iran is about to go nuclear, we on the verge of losing a war in Afghanistan and the moron president is worried about hosting an over-blown pageant for women with five o’clock shadows.

Points:

• It is dubious practice to use a taxpayer funded computer to attack both a network and individual.   It Obama does not care for what Glenn Beck says, and it is the moron’s right to object, let one of his paid flunkies like Keith Olbermann  do the dirty work.
• It is does not behoove a so-called “Reality Check” to misstate the facts.   The only way for the United States to win the Olympics selection process for some other nation, like Brazil, to be stuck with the bill of footing the games.
• Not all adults see the Olympics, in there present state, as even worthy of participation, much less hosting.
• The President said recently that he was not interested in victory.   Yet he strives to “win” the Olympic games.  Some strange set of priories.

Games are for children.    Public employee’s like, Mr. Lee, should not be using the public’s computer to play his childish smear games.    We will await Mr. Lee’s formal apology and subsequent resignation.

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

• ROTUNDO RIDES AGAIN: You can say what you will about The Great Rotundo, I’ll likely agree. But the tactics he’s employing here should be a lesson for the right, and how they should handle the RINOS.  Either they vote with us and our values or we remove them.  I’m telling you, folks, the right will win in a battle so constructed.
• POLANSKI SYNDROME seems to be going full bore, with Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese leaping up to defend him. The Huff and Puff as well… though interestingly the feedback they’re getting from their readers on the point is far from kind.  We remarked on this stuff yesterday, of course. I’m forced to ask again, though, as I did yesterday… paraphrasing here… What in the bloody hell would Polanski have to do to earn the ire of these people, short of actually hauling off and voting Republican? And does anyone else find the mental picture of Woody Allen, who married his step daughter, defending Polanski on a child rape charge, just a little bit off the wall?
• WHAT SMART ISN’T: Nobody ever said Bette Midler was the sharpest tool in the shed.  She is a WILLING tool, however.
• IS THE DEBATE OVER ON OBAMACARE? The numbers we reported in yesterday’s Ramble would seem to suggest that. And we’re already seeing postmortems being done on the mess. Even Chuckles the Clown is saying they don’t have the 60   votes. It’s clear peple don’t want a government takeover of healthcare.  So why aren’t we seeing admissions on this… that the debate is over… from the left who was so willing to depict the global warming debate as ‘over’? Maybe they’re just having too much fun with their campaign of fear. Byron York suggests their moment has come…. and gone.
• EVEN IN CHICAGO: Polls are suggesting the folks there are as close to 50/50 on the question of having the Olympics there.
• OBAMA INCREDIBLY NAIVE AND GROSSLY EGOTISTICAL: Ya know, I never figured I’d say this, but perhaps it’s time we start listening to the French.
• BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY: I know what you’re thinking, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
• IF YOU REALLY NEED A BETTER EXAMPLE OF THE OVER-REACH OF GOVERNMENT here you are. I will guarantee you that the complaint originate it from one of the commercial daycare centers in the neighborhood.  Likely, one that supports the Democrats on the local town council.
• BYE BYE, DAN: Despite having spent something like $5 million on the case, Dan Rather’s lawsuit against CBS has been dismissed by the state court of appeals, here in NY.  Of course, you didn’t hear much about that on the mainstream media last night.  First place I heard it from was Bernie Goldberg who happened on the O’Rielly show last night,  And then by way of a reader who captured it and mailed it to me.  It must be said, that I am somewhat sympathetic to the argument that Rather was made a scapegoat for all of this.  It wasn’t just Rather pulling the strings the on the TANG doc fiasco. the left leaning of CBS has long been documented and proven beyond any reasonable doubt.  Rather was simply the guy in the chair at the time.  I’m not excusing Rather in the least.  He deserves what he gets.  But what CBS has managed to do within the court system and some poll the argument, the Aleutian, the falsehood, that they were not partially responsible for the culture of left wing bias that so pervades that operation to this day.  And personally, I’m not too worried about Dan Rather Being able to make ends meet.  After all, consider the amount of money that can be made with a few speeches on the lecture circuit.  There are certainly enough morons out there who think rather and CBS are trustworthy an unbiased.
• SAD STORY: But a magnificent gesture.  Kudos to the folks at Fed Ex

Researchers have demonstrated a “time telescope” that could squeeze much more information into the data packets sent around the internet.
Read more at BBC.com Technology