FLASH:Ambulances to Robert Byrd’s House

Politico is reporting:

Ambulances and fire trucks were dispatched to the Northern Virginia home of Sen. Robert Byrd Tuesday morning.

A neighbor of the 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat said several ambulances were outside his residence in McLean, Va., and a Byrd spokesman said the senator suffered a fall in his home.

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

This is the Big Dish of Beef ChowMein Edition

• Dave’s ejection is Andy’s election Well, No duh, NY Post.  Now, perchance you might start looking more closely at exactly what Obama gets out of the deal? Please?
• Letterman Takes Turn Toward the Political Ummm… No, NY Times, he’s always been there. And of course he supports Obama. But what can be said about Letterman and his intellectual weight when the most recent other interview given by Obama was for Dora The Explorer?
• EXPLOSIVE NEW AUDIO Reveals White House Using NEA to Push Partisan Agenda says Big Hollywood Look, is there anyone… I mean anyone at all, that is shocked by this?
• More Troops or Failure says the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan
• I’m Still Running Says David Patterson. THe result will be more of an embarrasment to Obama and company, I suppose.
• QUESTION FROM OBAMA: How do we balance our freedom with our need to “look after one another”? ANSWER: At what point did the assumption show up that government was required in that process?

Andrew Breitbart, Big Government,  has released what five ACORN videos.   Let me see, Baltimore, DC, Brooklyn,  San Bernadino and San Diego.    So I find it hard to accept this line from the one at face value, from this Weak with George Stephanopoulos,  ABC News:

OBAMA:  You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.

That video, as in singular.    The one does not reveal to which single video he is referring.    It is certainly the most interesting presidential use of the word “that” since B.J. Clinton wagged his finger as the American public and denied having sex with that Miss Lewinsky.

Hat tip:  Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.

Addendum I:

Michelle thinks the one is just play acting:

Channeling clueless Charlie Gibson and Nancy Pelosi, President Obama is playing dumb about ACORN.

Michelle seems to forget that Mrs. Pelosi does not play at pretending to be dumb.

Addendum II:

Either the one doesn’t know the definition of the word tax, or he feels he assign any meaning at to a word.    If Obama words means only what Obama wants them to mean, then they but mere words.    Evidently Obama feels that a tax is not a tax, unless Obama deems it to be a tax, James Taranto, Best of the Web:

President Obama didn’t make much news on his round of five Sunday talk shows yesterday, with one notable exception. The President revealed a great deal about his philosophy of government and how he defines a tax increase. It turns out the President thinks a health-care tax is not a tax if he thinks the tax is for your own good.

Transcript, via Gateway Pundit:

STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.
OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The… ?for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that… right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase. People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy…

OBAMA: No, but… but, George, you… you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase. Any…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Here’s the…

OBAMA: What… what… if I… if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say… well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I… I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax…”a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the… definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the… dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but…

OBAMA: …what you’re saying is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.

OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that.

Video:

Is an individual mandate a tax or not,  Chris Frates and Mike Allen, Politico:

In the most contentious exchange of President Barack Obama’s marathon of five Sunday shows, he said it is “not true” that a requirement for individuals to get health insurance under a key reform plan now being debated amounts to a tax increase.

But he could look it up — in the bill.

Page 29, sentence one of the bill introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont) says: “The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax.”

George Stephanopoulus,   Chris Frates and Mike Allen all of ABC News, call an individual mandate a tax.   The Senate version’s author, Max Baucus calls it a tax.   Merriam Webster calls it a tax.   Obama says it not a tax.   Apparently Stephanpoulus,  Frates,  Allen,  Baucus and Webster are all wrong,  or the one is all wet.

The New York Daily News is reporting as of about 10 minutes ago:

ALBANY – In a stunning request, the Obama administration has made it clear to poll-challenged Gov. Paterson that the White House would prefer he not seek election to a full four-year term next year.

The Obama administration sent the message through White House political affairs director Patrick Gaspard, who met with the governor at his campaign headquarters for nearly two hours last Monday, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.

“They expressed concern about his chances about being reelected and the likelihood his presence in the race made it more likely that Rudy Giuliani would enter the contest,” the source said. “The preference is that he not run. That message was conveyed directly.”

…

The message to Paterson not only represents the White House trying to heavily influence a top state race, but also is a case of the first black president pressuring New York’s first black governor to step aside.

This is amazing, on a number of levels, only a few of which the article mentions. If there was ever an indication that Obama knows he’s in trouble in terms of the next couple election cycles, it’s this.  He clearly sees Giuliani as NY Governor a threat in terms of another presidential run on 2010.

This would also seem to leave the White House nod to the current NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. You will doubtless recall that in NY, AG doesn’t stand for “Attorney General” so much as “Aspiring Governor”. You may also recall the last person to rise to the Governor’s mansion via that path is now commonly referred to as “Client Number 9” Not exactly a resounding endorsement for Cuomo.  It gets better… Patterson has clearly labeled himself as not being a “Team Player” with the current power structure… and Cuomo, on the other hand IS a ‘Team Player”… which of course means he’s a walking disaster for NY and the country as a whole.

Eric Boehlert, Media Matters,  to needs lay off the Jim Jones Kool-Aid:

A President was killed the last time right-wing hatred ran wild like this

That being John F. Kennedy, who was gunned down in Dallas, of course.

I’ve been thinking a lot of Kennedy and Dallas as I’ve watched the increasingly violent rhetorical attacks on Obama be unfurled. As Americans yank their kids of class in order to save them from being exposed to the President of the United States who only wanted to urge them to excel in the classroom. And as unvarnished hate and name-calling passed for health care ‘debate’ this summer

Carol, Carol’s Closet, had me at bloviating:

Media Matters, showing a total lack of perspective, has done Nancy “Crocodile Tears” Pelosi a one up on the “crazy right wingers as assassins” meme. I believe it is called “bloviating.”

I am fifty-eight.   While I was alive during the Kennedy administration,  I can’t testify to the political rhetoric of the time.   I still in shock to the Yankees losing the World Series to the Pirates.    Boehlert offers no first hand recollection of the Kennedy administration either, and offers no metric for his claimed hatred.

Further, Boehlert offers no connection between his cited right-wing rhetoric and the actions of avow communist and Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.    As a theory does, Boehlert does not offer much.

By the way, the last president to get shot was Ronald Reagan.   The bullet missed his heart by an inch.   John Hinkly, decked lacked any face cards, but his philosophy was all liberal, to wit self-esteem.

The Wall Street Journal today has an op-ed up on Irving Kristol, (really just a collection of quotes from Kristol, which is likely the best way to handle such things)  Forbes is reporting Kristol as having died at age 89 in Falls Church, VA a few hours ago.

Kristol, has been dubbed the “godfather of neoconservatism“. And yes, he’s William Kristol’s father, the younger being the founder and the current editor at the Weekly Standard.

For whatever it’s worth, the official cause of death if complications due to lung cancer.

Consolences to the family.

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

This is the Friday Night Pizza Edition

• ABANDON SHIP!!! Byron York says the rats are abandoning the good ship ACORN. ALl this outrage is interesting, but ya know there’s an interesting question that none of the pols have bothered to ask: How many Democrats are in office right now because of the criminal activities of ACORN? Funny how we’re not seeing Democrat outrage about that, huh?
• MISSILE DEFENSE: Tom Nichols makes a spirited , but in the end unpersuasive defense of Obama’s actions vis’a’vie the missile shield in Eastern Europe.  What I said yesterday stands. Does anyone think that the Russian Bear isn’t licking his chops at the prospect of marching back into Eastern Europe unchallenged? And let’s recall, please that Iran is also a serious threat. That point alone makes this move by Obama serious breech of trust to Eastern Europe. He gave our word back in that speech in Prague, that the shield would proceed so long as Iran remained a threat. The WSJ speaks to this today. Joyner comments on statements by Brent Scowcroft today at the Atlantic Council.
  

  As for myself, I remain agnostic on the technical and strategic merits of the move to sea-based systems vice the previous land-based plan.  Nathan Hodge and Robert Haddick do a good job lining up the pros and cons and there are just too many variables and unknowns.  And, frankly, I’m rather dubious of the threat of either a Russian or an Iranian nuclear attack, which strike me as woefully overplayed.

  So, were we simply starting anew with two options, the Bush plan and the Obama plan, it would be a coin flip.  And General Scowcroft’s weighing in on the side of the latter might well tip the scales for me.

  

  Obama sets sail

  My concern, however, is that we weren’t starting from scratch but rather from a status quo where the United States has quite recently promised two allies that we’d put a system in their country that the extant governments considered a significant boost in their security (although, as noted in my earlier roundup, this is not a view universally shared in those states).  Further, the Russians have been both demanding that we rescind that deal and behaving badly toward its neighbors.  In my view, the optics very much matter in this case.

  With General Scowcroft on the other side, though, I hold that opinion with rather more unease and less confidence than I did this morning.

  I’m with James, here.This withdrawal is a dangerously stupid move. Indeed, I’ll go one step father.

• CRASHTEST? Reynolds:
  

  2009 Chevy Malibu vs. 1959 Chevy Bel Air. Conclusion: “the driver of the 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air would have been killed instantly while the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu’s driver would walk away with a minor knee injury.”…

  Great. Now try it with a Prius, or a “Smart” car.  You know.. the kid of car the government wants to cram us all into. You know, the greener “American” version of the Ziguli

Surber this morning:

Don Surber

Democrat Nancy Pelosi cried like a little girl that those mean, un-American people on the other side frighten her.

Pelosi sobbed: “This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and… I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made.”

We already have had violence. One of the goons that supports Obamacare bit off the finger of an opponent. The victim was 65.

And how about the union thugs who beat up a townhall protester so badly that he was hospitalized?

As for killing, an anti-abortion protester was shot several times and killed while protesting near a high school.

Pelosi was silent.

Indeed. But understand… this kind of double standard has been a part of leftist politics for decades.    What is annoying and dangerous is that Democrats have to be given power to demonstrate the levels of intimidation, double talk  and just plain corruption they bring to the table, before the American people will believe it. The damage that causes us as a nation, is just now starting to be felt.

Powerline looks at this as well, as does Confederate Yankee, Jules Crittenden and Megan McArdle, who after yesterday’s pasting she took from us, deserves kudos for commenting:

McArdle

I’m not sure what Nancy Pelosi is trying to say in this video.  Is she furthering the largely unsubstantiated claim that the American right is planning a reign of terror?  Or is she trying to tell us that Owosso was just the beginning?  Either way, this doesn’t seem like it’s adding much to the national conversation.

What nobody will dare tell you about Pelosi’s comments is that they constitute a thinly veiled mobilization call of those who would do  violence to support socialism.

Sorry, this is what it comes down to.  In a way, it’s the same kind of effect is calling those who oppose Obama “racist “… because the natural response to such things is for violence to occur in response to that ‘racism’ as it has so often in the past.

Now, it should be said, that such calls and such violent acts that result from such calls, are not working  in support of installing socialism as an answer for health care.  Rather, such actions have had the opposite effect.  But as Surber points out, they don’t have any other arguments to bring to the table.

Such scare tactics and intimidation mark Pelosi’s side of the argument. They cannot win by arguing the facts or by arguing the logic, so they must shed crocodile tears and tug at heart-strings to work up emotions for this dead parrot of a health plan.

The press should call her on this.

Agreed, but they will not.  After all, they have been part of the plan for some time now.

Indeed, watch this: I dare to say to you based on the undeniable history of the thing…

If and when leftist violent support for socialist health care becomes a larger reality than the leftist violence already listed above by Don,  (And I suspect it will) ,  the cycle of violence will be blamed directly on those opposing the left… all on the ‘vast right wing conspiracy” and the left’s history of violence in this and other matters will be ignored outright, as will the thinly veiled calls to that violence by the Democrat leadership such  as Pelosi.

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

This is the Hang A Right Edition

• CAP AND TAX: The real cost… $1761 per family per year. And that’s probably not half of it.
• ANOTHER ACORN: Bigger Government now says SanDiego ACORN is in trouble on the same stuff we saw in DC and Baltimore. There does seems something of a pattern developing here. Human Events says there’s more on the way, too. Ummm gang? That’s tonight, apparently… (BBCT:Glenn)
  
• HOW MANY MORE WILL DIE? The Democrats raised fuel efficiency standards to 35.5 mpg by 2016. I’ve already address this deceptive and deadly nonsense at PJM.
• BUT WHO MADE THE ACORN, DADDY? Boortz reminds us today that ACORN was a creation of the government under the Community Reinvestment Act. Do the math, kiddies.
• IF YOU”RE IN EASTERN EUROPE, GET WORRIED: Obama’s dropped missile defense, there. Catch this act: Obama makes the announcement 70 years to the day after the Russians moved in.  What tact.

Megan McArdle, Atlantic, moans:

I have a dilemma. The other day, I boldly stated that I could not possibly like Rush Limbaugh less. Then he went and described bullying attacks as what happens in “Obama’s America”. As Rod Dreher notes:

Look, I think it’s important to talk about black male violence, or at least as important as it is to talk about any other important social trend. I don’t think we should be squeamish about discussing it in a responsible and fair-minded way, despite what the politically correct say. But good grief, Limbaugh is up to something wicked. He’s plainly trying to rally white conservatives into thinking that now that we have a black president, blacks are rising up to attack white kids! Christ have mercy, what is wrong with these people?

This is possibly the first time I have ever heard the word “wicked” deployed in a public debate, and boy, is it on target. It is perfectly true that if the races had been reversed, Al Sharpton would probably be out there saying this was a symptom of America’s lynching culture, and also perfectly irrelevant. The response to Al Sharpton’s antics is not to emulate them. Race-baiting is not a team sport that anyone should want to join. And I assure Limbaugh, from vivid memory, that horrible bullying also took place in Ronald Reagan’s America, and every other America since at least 1978.

McArdle may indeed have a dilema, but she does not have a clue.   Then  neither do her readers.   So what did Rush Limbaugh say that set off the alarm bells in McArdle’s head?    I don’t know.   McArdle does not say.  I quess were supposed to conclude that setting off Rod Dreher is some kind new crime.

Fortunately, Dan Riehl, Riehl World View, does provide what Limbaugh actually said:

RUSH:  Hey, look, folks, the white kid on that bus in Belleville, Illinois, he deserved to be beat up.  You don’t know about this story?  Oh, there’s video of this.  The school bus filled with mostly black students beat up a white student a couple of times with all the black
students cheering.  Of course
the white student on the bus deserved the beating.  He was born a racist.  That’s what Newsweek magazine told us in its most recent cover.  It’s Obama’s
America, is it not?  Obama’s America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now.  You put your kids on a
school bus, you expect safety but in Obama’s
America
the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, “Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on,” and, of course, everybody says
the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he’s white. 
Newsweek magazine told us this.  We know that white
students are destroying civility on buses, white
students destroying civility in classrooms all over
America, white congressmen destroying civility in the House of Representatives. 

We can redistribute
students while we redistribute their parents’ wealth.  We can redistribute everything.  Just return
the white
students to their rightful place, their own bus with bars on the windows and armed guards.  They’re racists.  They get what they deserve. 
Newsweek magazine told us this, post-racial
America.  I wonder if Obama is going to come to the defense the assailants the way he did his friend Skip Gates up there at Harvard.  I mean the assailants are presumed innocent due to
the white racism we all know runs rampant in
America.  The Drive-By Media is ginning up all this criticism of Obama.  Again today it’s all based in racism, the criticism of Obama’s health care plan or whatever, it’s all based in racism and so, if he’s going to apologize for
America, Obama needs to apologize for the right reasons.  White Americans are racists who have created what they call free markets that really just enslave the rest of
America and her trading partners. It was white Americans that ran off Van Jones.

That is called sarcasism.   Dan adds:

What’s most disturbing to me in all this is that these people are supposed to be like toothpaste: ultra-bright. Assuming they are, they must have some form of blinder on. Whenever a Limbaugh or a Levin says something, their intellects seem to abandon them completely. Either that, or they simply aren’t as bright as they would have us believe.

They can interpret literature, poetry, theology, all manner of prose, but let a Right-side talking head say something and they look like petulant school children utterly confused by the encounter with their first serious book.

I love the “real” bit below from Andy, as if he has a prayer of representing himself as an authority on conservatism in America any more.

I admit that using sarcasism is tempting but dangerous.   It often lost on room temperatures I.Q.’s.

Note Bitsblog non-reader, Bertha Lewis adds that the white students were playing along with the black students by pretending to be attacked.

From the New York Daily News, comes word that Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame is dead at 72. Leuchimea, the cause.

The Charles Johnson saga continues unabated, this time with Stacy McCain returning fire for the first time. And a substantial piece of artillery it is, too.

Robert Stacy McCain

Charles Johnson’s gutless passive-aggressive act — outrageously libeling me, trying to prevent me from reporting on the 9/12 March on DC, and then falsely claiming that I am attacking him — has been permitted to continue too long. Honest people are now compelled by simple decency to denounce him as the craven, sadistic liar he is. Contrary to anything Mad King Charles may tell his dwindling pool of yet-to-be-banned readers in their “private” discussions, this engagement began when Johnson attacked my friend Pamela Geller for her attendance at the October 2007 Brussels conference. Though I was not involved in that dispute, as I told Pamela in a brief phone conversation this morning, I now regret that I did not immediately leap to her defense.

Pamela Geller is a brave woman who can fight her own battles without my aid, but by the time I finally spoke up — in November 2008 — Charles had already irrevocably committed himself to the disgraceful campaign by which he has since destroyed his own reputation and influence:

And, well, it goes on from there.  You get the general idea of the thing.

The fact of the matter is, Charles is out of his depth.  Delinking Pajamas Media, (whom I also write occasional articles for) was what really caught my attention on all of this.  He’s lost it; there’s no other way to read this.

With that ignorance, Johnson has been successful in turning one of the more popular and influential sites on the web into something significantly less than that.  It’s sad to see Charles Johnson go the way of Saint Andrew (the Incontinent) Sullivan. Like Sullivan, Charles Johnson’s popularity, along with that of the site, is directly linked to how closely he aligns  himself and his site with the conservative movement.  Given the height of the flames currently consuming that particular bridge,  the outcome of this thing is eminently  predictable, to the point where I don’t even have to tell you what that outcome will be.

You already know.

More Kyle-Anne, from American Thinker:

If there is one thing even more American than apple pie, it is the rhetorical slicing and dicing of our presidents.  This stems from the egalitarian nature of our Constitution and our forceful, revolutionary rebuke of royalty.  Rhetorically eviscerating presidents as the servants of the people they are constitutionally mandated to be is as much an American pastime as baseball.

Call Barack Obama what you will.   Smart he is not.    The Retard-in-Chief should have studied American history.    We fought one ware to rid ourselves of one self-obsessed,  petty tyrant, King George III.   We have no need for a king in the White House, along with his thirty-two czars.

How easy did these people think it was going to be when they decided to elect a man whose resume fits nicely on a postage stamp to the highest office in the land?

Racism?  No.  Incompetence with a capital “I.”  Yes, we can object.

Kyle-Anne Shiver, American Thinker

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

This is the “Have a Beer” edition

• THE LEFT REACTS TO ACORN REVELATIONS: To which, Don Surber adds his own reax. And so does Michelle. And, Hugh, for that matter.  John Fund. And the LA Times.  I wonder how long it’ll be before folks start making the proper connections between ACORN and Obama’s rise to power, and figure all this out. And can I just say the girl playing the hooker is just a downright melt -the -wax -off -your -dixie -cup beautiful girl? OK, I didn’t say it.
• ...AND THE SEIU, TOO: Bigger Government looks at the relationship between ACORN and the SIEU.
• JOE WILSON: Boortz says “Only in Government”:
  

  So yesterday the House voted to admonish Rep. Joe Wilson for his “you lie” outburst during Obama’s joint session of Congress. The votes pretty much went down party lines. To the best of my knowledge, it was the first time that a Congressman has been reprimanded like this by the House. Maybe be will ask Jamie Dupree about that. Speaking of Jamie Dupree … Yesterday during the Information Overload hour, he asked me whether or not I would vote to reprimand Joe Wilson and I said that I would. I would like to see a return of some degree of civility to the Congress .. and that means you spank the hand of those that you may agree with as well as those with whom you disagree.

  Now … a few questions. What about Barney Frank? Which do you think is worse, an outburst on the floor when you’re confronted with a president who plays loose with the truth? Or having your male lover run a homosexual prostitution business out of your home in Washington? And then there’s Charles Rangel. This guy is running the committee that writes tax laws, yet he is a serial tax cheat. Does that measure up to a serious breach of ethics or not? The House ethics committee can’t seem to even so much as scowl at Rangel.

  Well, here’s where Neal and I part company. The fact is that Wilson spoke the truth, and that’s really what the vote was about.  Does anyone really think that the Democrats… (who as Neal points out later on in the article, and elsewhere on his page today, have been screaming “LIAR” at President Bush for 8 years) …does anyone really consider that they give a hot crap about ‘civility’?   Or are they simply concerned about silencing the truth-tellers? And when civility comes at the expense of the truth, what have we gained? A group of very polite liars.  Sorry, but I fail to see any advantage in that, for anyone except the liars. And when you play the line that Neal does here, you abdicate the field of battle with these people.  This is a point I’ve made for years with such as Henke, who still doesn’t understand the point, I think. Look over the last eight years and tell me any damned one of them has even a passing understanding of Washington’s rules of civility for example. Sorry, when I see the last 8 years, I know what we’re up against… and the clamoring on ‘civility’ from the left given their track record is a concept which can be found in lesser amounts on any stable floor.

• And by the way, Neal.. does anyone really consider that playing the race card like this is adding to civil discourse or simply adding mud to the water? Jimmah Carter:
  

  Go ahead people. Tell me about this this is because they’re concerned about Civility.(Spit)

• OLYMPIA REACHES THE INTERNATIONAL “ENOUGH” LINE: The Hill is reporting Snowe has fallen off support on the Democrats healthcare. Which means, if this thing passes at all, it’s going to pass on a straight party line vote.  Rather like the vote on the admonition of Joe Wilson , isn’t it?  It’s my take, that the democrats will start removing some of the less popular provisions within the current bill to try and get it by.  Which of course means that the thing is going to be even more expensive than originally designed.  Gee, in the middle of a recession that’s going to go over well, don’t you think?