Obama And Detaining Wartime Suspects: The Rhetoric Versus the Reality

From the Washington Post this morning, comes word that the Obama administration is asserting it’s right to hold detainees involved in a wartime situation indefinitely.  There are several angles on this, so stay with me here.

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war.

First of all, that right was not initiated by Mr. Bush since Roosevelt claimed the same right and executed that right during World War two.  Do a quick search against the strings “Japanese” and “internment camps” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The fact is every president in history has had that power, and those faced with wartime situations have executed it since the time of Washington.  That’s precisely why the rhetoric of candidate Obama was always destined to be overridden by the reality of all Obama as President.  For that matter, anyone as President.

Secondly, and on that basis,  I’ve already predicted that this would happen I don’t regard this as a negative.  Frankly, what we have here is the screaming Liberal rhetoric of the Obama candidacy running square into the face of reality , and reality winning.  Now, given that in most other of Obama’s endeavors, (His economc catastrophies come to mind)  the outstanding question is whether not the man has any perception of reality whatsoever, this can only be considered a bright spot in what is otherwise an abysmal performance.

Thirdly, James Joyner over OTB this morning calls our attention to the byline of the story in question, which reads: “The authors are bylined as “ProPublica and Washington Post Staff Writer,” respectively. James points to ProPublica’ statement of purpose and wonders what they’re doing writing what is being passed off as a hard news story:

ProPublica’s About page begins:

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them. [emphasis mine]

Now, isn’t this more than a little odd?  The Washington Post is teaming up with an advocacy organization with a very particular agenda to do major news stories?  Doesn’t that blur the lines just a wee bit?

And that it most certainly does, and more than just a bit.  I’ve done some independent investigation into the origins of the group and it’s my judgment that if you pull this weed out of the ground you’re going to find George Soros clinging to its roots.  It’s also my take,that they’ve been using such sources without attribution for some time now.  Consider that their content really hasn’t changed all that much over the last say, decade, or so.

Now, of course, the complaint of such groups is that Mr. Obama is not leading left far enough on these matters, and is asserting a right that should have never been granted the presidency in the first place.  This, of course, is utter nonsense, but such is the content of most leftist newspapers these days including the Washington Post.

Others: Newshoggers.com, Hot Air, The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room,  Jules Crittenden, TigerHawk, Macsmind, Outside The Beltway, Atlas Shrugs, Althouse, The Politico, Flopping Aces,  Don Surber, Wake up America, Swampland, Moe Lane, Sister Toldjah, Patterico’s Pontifications, QandO, Power Line, memeorandum

Jackson, Eric rambled quite a bit about the late Michael Jackson.   Much too much to quote.

First some perspective.   Did I tell you I hate Jonah Goldberg.  Nobody should be able to write his well at one thirty in the morning.    Goldberg finds the media reaction to Jackson passing overdone, via National Review:

Generally speaking, I’m a believer in the rule that we should not speak ill of the dead. Or at least we should wait a decent interval before doing so (if we never spoke ill of the dead, history would be meaningless). But, I must say I find the media’s instinctive rush to sanctify Michael Jackson disgusting.

Unlike Eric who made a career out spinning platters,  almost all of Jackson’s career came after I tuned out  pop music.   Sometime in the ”Seventies I simply quit listening to it.    My take on Jackson is cultural, and not musical.     Jackson’s life was described as “beyond bizarre.”     The man was an immense talent.   He made millions, but died a pauper.

I would not  wish Jackson’s life on my worst enemy.    The problem is what we as a society are all too willing to overlook deficiencies in moral character of celebrities.    I imagine that the American Bar Association will be wearing black arm bands in memory of their now departed walking ATM machine.

Michael Jackson icon of the revolution,  this video is amazing.    It goes to show that while Jackson was a very small man, he was bigger than life as a music talent.   Jackson has become the voice of the Iranian revolution, go to the video:

Hat tip:  Gateway Pundit.

Dirty Harry admits to being incompetent:

(CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nev.) …confessed at his Thursday news briefing that he did not have “a lot of time” to read the 1,071-page stimulus bill before voting on it in February.

He was unapologetic, however, about the way Congress rushed that bill through before it could be reviewed by senators and the public, and declined to commit to giving senators and the public at least a week to read the final version of health-care reform bill before calling a vote on it.

So if Dirty Harry is not even reading the bills he presents for passage, who is?    Who is running the Senate?  It is not Dirty Harry.

Reminder to Dirty Harry, Porkulus was a monumental failure.   Having rushed a failed stimulus package through the Senate,  Dirty Harry wants to do the same with both health-care and “cap and tax.”

It would be better to read legislation before it is voted on, and Mrs. Pelosi is no better.

Does homosexual sodomy lead to insanity, Gary Bauer, Human Events:

This week, when [Perez] Hilton used a “gay slur” against Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am’s manager, who had just slugged Hilton, it was Hilton, not the manager, who was compelled to apologize. At first, Hilton refused to do so. But he quickly found his voice after feeling the pressure from homosexual activist groups like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which condemned Hilton’s use of “vulgar anti-gay slurs that feed a climate of hatred and intolerance toward our community.”

Hurray for Obey, via Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit     About time somebody put an end to these ridiculous taxpayer funded, “Monuments to Me.”

Geraghty’s Law on steroids,Jim Geraghty, National Review

Barack Obama Is a Big Fat Liar

Obama spent $44 million attacking McCain for an idea that Obama no longer opposes.

I have to disagree just a wee bit with Geraghty calling Obama a big fat liar.   Obama is not fat.

As I predicted here this afternoon, it came down to less than 10 votes… 219 to 212,  Eight Republicans backed the bill, and 44 Democrats voted against it.

Every one of the people who voted for this bill should be removed from office immediately.  Believe me when I tell you I’m not exaggerating were overreacting.  It is my firm belief that they have betrayed their country and their districts. Those Republicans that voted for it, and I don’t have that information yet, particularly need to be removed from office.  I will give the GOP some credit.  Chairman Michael Steele issued a statement against the Democrats who voted for the bill.  Problem is, he didn’t make a statement against the Republicans who voted for the bill.  In my view, this is the first test for Michael Steele. He needs to act against those Republicans that voted for this bill. They need to be removed from the party.  Barring that action being taken, we should remove Mr. Steele as well and replace him with someone that will lead the party away from the “me too” socialism we’ve seen so much of, lately.

Nobody even bothered reading the thing before voting on it.  We saw that with the initial stimulus bill, didn’t we?

We also see where that got us.

I’ve been hearing stuff coming out of Washington all day, about the way congressmen were being cajoled, and quite literally bribed.  Bought off.  Pelosi coming to Congressman Whatshisname, and saying Congressman, what do you need to change your mind on this bill? Pork projects? No problem. A bridge to nowhere?  No problem. are we in comrade Putin’s Russia? is this the land of Hugo Chavez?  Is this north Korea?  I ask because I suggest based on what we’ve seen today that the politics are indistinguishable, one from the other.  That kind of thing has no place in these United States. This is a level of corruption, that years ago would have resulted in trials, and convictions.   And yet, look who we have in office.

So now, it goes on to the Senate.  Democrat Senators bragging that they’ve got this when sewn up. The pressures on both sides over there are already ramping up.   I’m telling you folks, if this gets signed into law it is a stake in the heart of the American economy.  There is no gentle way to put it.  If this thing … this bureaucratic nightmare, crosses the oval office desk, America is done.  Over. Why?

This is the largest tax increase in American history…… Just at the time when we can least stand the extra taxation.  If you really wanna get the economy moving again, the best way is to start domestic drilling.  Open up the use of coal or oil natural gas and nuclear.  Remove added taxation and let the free market flow.  But no, the Democrats want to increase the role of government, decrease the role of private industry, and place the burden for it on the shoulders the American people,  and it’s all being pushed under the guise of “climate change”.  The concept that man can have any effect whatsoever on the environment as a whole, is little more than fairy tale to begin with.  But even assuming that was a real issue, and not a made up one,   placing these lead weights on the feet of the American economy in the midst of a recession , is certain to drag the economy to the bottom.  It is sheer madness, if recovering from this economy and putting America back on track is it all on the agenda.

To that point, it has become increasingly hard over the last several days and weeks to conclude that actual recovery for the economy is the priority of the Democrats.  Given the evidence, the unavoidable conclusion is that they are about intentionally killing America.

Look at the pattern; whatever government has been lessened, the economy takes off like a shot, and we are in good times.  Increased the role of government, and the reverse happens.  Now look at what’s been happening under the democrats.   The government in the last five months has taken over the car companies, taken over the banks, taken over the insurance companies, and has successfully put itself in the driver’s seat of every single business in this country, large and small  to an extent that our founders would have never dreamed of, and indeed fought a revolution to free themselves of such government intervention.   They have injected themselves into the pockets of ourselves and our children to an extent that we can even estimate yet given that the final figures aren’t in.

So, with all of this, the question now becomes what is it going to take to get the American people to rise up against this massive government takeover?  I know very well, that when it starts impacting people in the wallet is when they’re going to start complaining, and complaining bitterly, and reacting.  The problem with that is, it’ll already have been too late.  The damage will have been done.

Addendum: Michelle Malkin has the lists of Republicans who voted for the bill, and the Democrats who voted against it, and has comments of her own. So does Bruce.

Welcome, every one of you to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the “Delivery Truck” Edition.

• Jackson: If you’re looking for a glowing obit, singing the unalloyed praises of the 50 year old kid who died yesterday, look elsewhere, This ain’t it. I won’t insult you by even attempting such a piece. What I will give you is honest impressions.I suppose by now I’m used to the idea of American success stories being played out as American tragedies. And who can deny that Michael Jackson was both? I made my living spinning records in the 70’s and 80’s, both on air and in clubs, and weddings and so on, so I perhaps had more experience with his music than some.  Instantly recognizable riffs, and a groove, as I used to say, you couldn’t stop with a truck. Innovative, yet a dependable sound; a standard part of the toolkit of the DJ’s of the era.  I built quite a few mixes based on his records, as did most back then. Radio, too, couldn’t get enough of him.He was one of the few child stars that actually made it into adulthood, with both their popularity and talent intact, and indeed, on the rise.  Others have done it, of course, but that path is often littered with problems for the child star, usually but not always linked to the degree of their success, and most certainly linked to the degree of a real childhood they had.  And for the next hundred years at least, Michael Jackson will be the primary example of that syndrome, because few others managed to make it through that meat grinder, and remain popular, and active, creatively.Jackson was undeniably more of a screwball than most of them.  There are kinder words for it, but few more accurate.  I suppose those quirks engendered as much fan affection for him as headshaking. I wonder now, though, as I have often in the past, if Jackson wasn’t living out the childhood he didn’t have. Money and success drives the most grounded among us off the rails, if you don’t mind me mixing metaphors. A look at lottery winners tells that tale rather well. Almost invariably, they don’t know how to handle the money. We try to let the money fill those areas of our lives we see as lacking. So, it seems to me natural that when Jackson went Bozo on the money, he did so in the direction of the childhood he never really had.?Was he a child rapist? I honestly don’t know, though it wouldn’t shock me if he was, given the rest of it. It fits the pattern, seemingly. It’s easy to believe.  

  That said, it also wouldn’t shock me if the court cases we kept hearing about weren’t brought on by his vast success, and the lottery of the lawsuit. Sadly, if the latter is true, he was truly a victim of his successes.As he was yesterday.And yes, I’ll say it… I suspect that what happened here was health problems brought on by his terminally weird attitudes about health, which resulted in a combo of prescriptions.  We won’t know for sure until the autopsy is done. Prelims should be out in a few days, and the full thing in a week or two. 

  The investigation, I hear, is looking at Demerol. Ouch. I’ve had that stuff myself, incidental to a radiator blowing up on me about 20 years ago. I don’t remember much about it, really which ought to be enough of a description of the stuff, right there.  This report does seem to confirm my suspicions, though.

  I suppose this case will be a complex one, and given the level of money involved, and the possible lawsuits that will occur, the Coroner’s office will want to take the time to do this one right. But it’s an even money bet in the end, that the report will confirm what I suspect.  We’ll see soon enough, I suppose, for what difference it’ll make. As in life, MJ in death is a diversion for most of us. 

  Meanwhile, the mold is well cast… we know how to create a mega star. We’ve done it often enough. What we’ve never mastered is how to help them deal with the consequences of it. But we never seem to tire of this same sad show we see every damned time, do we? 

  Don Surber suggests the next child star train wreck is Britney Spears. I must say, that’s not a bad call, though I wonder if Lindsay Lohan… oh, never mind. See how easy it is to get caught up in this diversion nonsense? Billy has comments, too. He suggests the real thing was the J5. And he’s right, I think, that the stuff doesn’t get the attention it deserves, anymore.

  

  Billy Beck

  I hadn’t really missed Michael Jackson in many years. There had been a time when I had, beginning right around “Thriller”. I was always ready to congratulate him on the monster success of that record. However, I didn’t get “Billie Jean”, and I still don’t. It was the work of The Jackson 5 that had stamped me. In my experience, that project had come perfectly in trail of black American music threads like Jackie Wilson and Stax/Volt: this was a clean and logical extension of R&B into more electric domains, stroked-up with the sparks flying off of work like that from James Brown and Sly & The Family Stone. “The Love You Save” was seminal to me: after that, I was ready for Rare Earth; by the time “Celebrate” and “Big Brother” came along, I knew what I was listening to.

  Well, see… that was the difference between Motown in the day, and the rest of them. Remember, Billy… Rare Earth was a Motown act, too, a point I’m sure didn’t get by you…. having recorded most of their hits in the old Motown studio, dirt floor and all. Listen to the echo on the drumkit on “Get Ready” for example,  and tell me that’s not the Motown sound with white Rock and Rollers.  Gordy was a genius in signing them, I think, because thet influence went both ways.  I think the only way you’re going to ‘get’ his later work is to evaluate it on it’s own. It’s Jackson trynig to break the cutesy mold, without losing his roots outright, and on a musical basis, it worked.  And you know, I can almost hear Sly doing “Billie Jean” or “Off the Wall”. I can almost see that working, with the group being a lot looser on the harmony stuff and Sly screwing with the tempo some.

Unity: There’s a thought that occurred to me, last night as I was going to sleep. Someone commented within my hearing that attaining the kind of popularity Jackson had in the day is impossible to do, today, such a rise will never be duplicated, even by Jackson himself, assuming he’d lived and the comeback tour had been everything anyone could hope. In thinking on why that might be, I come to one conclusion: We were far more of a homogeneous culture, then than now.  I wonder if some of the mourning we’re seeing isn’t on some level a reflection on that loss.  Heh. No, I don’t propose to hold Jackson up as a symbol of our culture in those days. Yet it’s undeniable that culturally speaking we were collectively far more willing to all see something in the music, than I suspect we would be, today.

• This is news? Jackson’s death yesterday brought every publicity bug out of the woodwork. I had no sooner made the prediction to my wife that would happen, than we saw Al Sharpton on all channels.  I know that when you’re in wall to wall mode, you scramble looking for something to fill the time with.  But Sharpton? C’mon, guys. That’s the first sign you’ve run out of things to say. And a special note to Fox; Do yourselves a major favor, along with us. Dump Rivera. I place that journalistic flyweight in the same publicity seeking class as I do Sharpton. The difference is, Rivera isn’t as smart.
• HEY! What about Farrah? Well, yeah, doesn’t THAT suck?  I mean, dying on the same day as the Gloved one?  I think personally, I’d have preferred the relative anonymity that being gobbled up by the news cycle surrounding Jackson provided those surrounding Farrah, as opposed to the news media going wall to wall on the thing, as they likely would have, had Jackson’s death not occurred as it did.  Then again, I’m not a star.  That said, though, I can’t imagine, say, Ryan O’Neil isn’t breathing a little easier for not having to face all that now. So maybe that’s all good, I don’t know. Then too, we’ve known for some time about her impending demise. We knew about the cancer, most of us. So the collective shock value didn’t rate as high, I suppose. All we knew of Jackson was he was supposed to be doing concerts in London next month…
• Holy Overload, Batman! When news broke yesterday of Jackson’s death, the Internet, already abuzz with Farrah’s death, went into a full stop traffic jam.  By no means unexpected, but a little different than what I’ve seen for other events. Example; When 9/11 happened, I was in my office in Downtown Rochester. Almost as soon as I’d heard the news, my alarm bells started ringing as the bandwidth consumption at routers I was watching went through the ceiling.  The company I was with at the time, had two POPs… one in LA, and one in New York… as it turned out, almost underneath the towers. Both reflected a huge jump in traffic, despite the early hour on the west coast yet. Numbers from routers on the far side of the firewall in each case were even worse.I have always marveled that while slow, the net never quit outright, as it did yesterday in a lot of cases. New York’s POP  particularly shocked me, because as I found out later, the outer wall on the building the POP was in, had been seriously damaged by the towers falling.I imagine there’s a few differences that might account for this difference; We’re far more ‘on the net’ as a people than we were then… the net wasn’t nearly as universal. Broadband apps weren’t used nearly as much… such as video and audio streams.  And since that time, more folks are using the net as their primary source of news.
   Bang, Boom:  I note Pajamas Media having server issues this morning.  I’ve been getting 504 errors off the place all morning. I see Billy’s having some hardware problems, too.  I think Billy’s issue was lightning if you want my honest opinion. He caught a decent thunderstorm down there while he was gone. Trust me, I’m hip to those… I lost the server room router in one, last month; an 8 porter. I had wanted to get a big 24 port router for my LAN here at Casa De Bit, but after losing one of the smaller ones in a thunderstorm that went through here a month back, I’ve decided to run a number of smaller ones, spread around the house. Cheaper on cable for one thing, and yes, I take a small performance hit… bur if I lose a small one, it’s not nearly the price hit.
• Cap and Tax: The Pelosi-Waxman-Markeybill, better known as cap and Trade and better described as cap and tax, was up today. Watch this: Waxman, transparency advocate that he is when Republicans are in power, decided overnight to replace the 1091 plus page monster,  with a totally different bill… one coming in at only 300 pages.  Good so far, right?  Well, apparently the Democrats figure it won’t withstand scrutiny so after replacing the bill last night, they’re pushing it through today with only 2 hours of debate, given nobody any time to read the bloody thing. This not only is as dictatorial a move as I’ve ever seen in the Congress,  but it makes me wonder what it is they’re hiding in this new bill.And perhaps we’ll never know. Word from my contacts in DC is the thing doesn’t have the votes, and so it won’t come to a vote today. Others are saying it’ll pass by a few votes. As usualy with one like this, the feedback is a bit of a jumble. But ponder what happens if despite all of that, they still couldn’t get it through. David Axelrod is being quoted by at least one source as suggesting that it “proves we can’t govern”.  Yeah? No kidding?   This going to come down to ten votes or less as it looks now. And again, this isn’t the Republcians doing this; The Democrats have near super-majorities in both houses, and can do any damned thing they want to. As a collection, they don’t want to. And no wonder; who wants to kill our economy as this thing surely will.  True, Obama’s out there telling us all it’s going to work… but the Democrats in Congress listened to that about $800 billion ago, and have seen the results in their approval ratings. They know they’re on thin ice.
• Caption First:  A first place for the Boss at OTB’s caption Contest.
•  Whatever happened to draining the swamp? Word from the Washington Times:
  

  House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying “powers that be” put the kibosh on the idea.Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, earlier bucked his party leaders by calling for hearings on accusations the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) has committed crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.

  “The powers that be decided against it,” Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times

  Uh huh. Gee…. I can’t imagine why. Remember when ethics was the thing, Mr. Congressman?

Reports from Washington are starting to suggest that the automation system was in fact at fault in the cash of the DC Mtro train crash that killed nine and injured 70. Example, near the bottom of a report by  Fox/AP:

Federal investigators said Thursday that Metro’s signaling system failed to detect a test train stopped in the same place as one that was struck during this week’s deadly crash.

Test results indicate the oncoming train involved in Monday’s crash may have lacked information that another train was stopped on the tracks ahead.

This would be consistant with the reports we got that the Mushroom had indeed been deployed.  It likely would ahve been deployed sooner but for the first train being behind a bit of a blind turn, as I indicated in my discussions of the matter at OTB the other day. If I’ve got the spacing correct, she hit the brake about halfway around the turn when the first train became visible… far too late to stop the thing in time, even assuming the brakes were working… and that’s not been established yet.

Billy Beck:

Ed Rasimus minutes:

“But, my point…(drum roll, please)…’devolution.’

I don’t equate it as Smith does with societal reversion or decline. The classic definition in political science of devolution is one of a reversal of the 20th century dismantling of the Constitutional federal system. It is a rediscovery of the 9th and 10th amendments and the basic principle of delegated and reserved power. It is emphasis on enumerated and aversion to implied powers for the feds.

In short, it is relinquishing of federal power and intervention and return of discretional authority over a wide range of local issues to the local governments for local solutions, approved and funded by locals. In short, not a bad thing.

And, therein lies my problem with Smith. Exactly the opposite of classic devolution is what is occurring. The ‘State’ is becoming the monolithic, Hannah Arendt totalitarian system and the state/local governments reduced to mere functionaries and enforcers. And, the states, obedient to their citizens are begging for the privilege.

Hence, my different but equal pessimism.”

Ed hits on a crucial political point, which is that Smith’s devolution, while accounting for reduced government “services” (we should call ’em that), is not doing justice to facts of consolidation and enlargement of power. Remember that victims of the great twentieth century tyrannies suffered terrible material conditions (definitely: “reduced services”) under ruthlessly centralized regimes. (These regimes had finally resolved their raison d’etre: it’s never about “services”. It’s always about power.) Whether the trash gets picked up on time is impertinent to the facts of government integration going on now in every dimension at unprecedented rates. If the former represents “devolution”, the latter most certainly does not.

If I’m reading you correctly, I gotta agree, here. I know you’re not going to like this, Billy, but when the founders came along with the concepts of our form of government, they thought the receprocity thing (mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation) to be an advancement… an evolution in government. An improvement.  As our government has become increasingly centralized in Washington, I’ve considered it moving away from those ideas and ideals… a devolution.

I ‘get’ that it’s not the degree of freedom you would seek,(they still had some evolving to do) but I think we’re in agreement it’s a lot closer than what we see out of the federal government these days.

More from the moral sink hole known as New York State, from Rob Stien, Washington Post:

New York has become the first state to allow taxpayer-funded researchers to pay women for giving their eggs for embryonic stem cell research, a move welcomed by many scientists but condemned by critics who fear it will lead to the exploitation of vulnerable women.

The liberals keep telling us that abortion ought to considered moral because after all the fetus is just part of the woman’s body.   Then by that logic, such as it is, the Empire State is now paying cash money, stolen from taxpayers like me, to buy body parts.   And you thought that Frankenstein was a fictional character.

Then if you are like me and believe that life begins at coception, then New York State is paying women tax dollars to sell their sons, and daughters, into slavery.   Then there is that pesty problem of the Thirteeenth Amendment.

Of course, I don’t expect that David Paterson will see any problem with this

By one theory I am being forced to buy body parts, or by the other, I am aiding and abeting slavery.    In either case, I object.  And you?

Needless to say, no moral man or women should consent to allow be it their body parts, or their progeny to to exploited.

Michael Jackson is reported to have died:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop giant Michael Jackson, who took to the stage as a child star and went on to set the world dancing to the thumping rhythms of his music for decades, died Thursday, TMZ website reported. He was 50.

“We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died,” TMZ said.

Talent can get you fame and fortune.  Sadly is not buy either normalacy or happiness.   Jackson’s tortured journey appears to be over.  May God have mercy on his soul.  

Jackson was reported to suffered a cardiac arrest and being rush to a hospital.

Hat tip:    Gateway Pundit.

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

This is the “Beep Beep” Edition. If you don’t get the reference, look here.

• The Obamacare Telethon:  No, I didn’t bother watching it last night. the results were quite predictable . Jeff Poor of the Business and Media Institute did force himself to watch and found pretty much what I said it would be:
  

  Call this a teachable moment, but even with ABC’s best-laid plans to kickstart the debate about health care reform and not allow the “Prescription for America” special to become an “infomercial,” as many have complained – the president spent more than twice as much time as his questioners vaguely answering or not answering the questions asked of him. But the network consistently presented the event as part of the need to fix a “broken system.” When asked, every one of the 164 hand-picked audience members said they felt that health care needed to be changed.President Barack Obama appeared on the ABC network in a town hall format broadcasted from the White House on two separate programs on June 24 – an hour-long primetime special during the 10 p.m. Eastern Time hour and later on the “Nightline” program that aired during the 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time hour.

  ABC’s “Good Morning America” co-host Diane Sawyer billed the event as “a serious conversation” about the issue and she moderated the discussion along with her former “GMA” partner, now “World News” anchor Charles Gibson. ABC medical editor Dr. Timothy Johnson, a long-time network advocate for universal health care plans going back to Hillarycare, also participated in the event.

  While Obama had to field some difficult questions — from the audience and ABC — he faced no Republcian critics of his proposals.

  It ended up being the one-sided discussion that Obama always demands. Clearly, his proposals cannot stand any serious scrutiny. Be worried. Be very, very worried.

• Sanford and Sin: Say what you will about Mark Sanford, I’ll likely agree. I found Michelle Malkin’s comments on the matter particularly potent, for example. But I’ve seen nothing yet that changes my perception of yesterday afternoon that the way this feeding frenzy was started and maintained was and remains highly orchestrated.Do not misread me here, this is not a defense of Sanford. It does strike me as interesting, however, that the leakage of a string of emails which by federal law are supposed to be kept private, ending up in the hands of the South Carolina newspaper, and nobody asks how. On whose servers were these emails stored?That same newspaper sat on those articles for some as yet unspecified period of time. Why? Was it so as to create maximum political impact?Interesting, too, the number of scandals that ended up being revealed between 1-20-08 and today… the most recent being Ensign and Sanford… both considered presidential possibles for the GOP. Did these guys suddenly get super-randy because Obama is in office? That doesn’t seem reasonable. And only Republicans were affected?  That doesn’t seem a reasonable assumption, either.I’m telling you, folks, there’s more going on here. The way this fell together so slick, just smells to me of someone’s engineering.And again, let’s be clear about this; Sanford is done, and should be so. But I’d be very interested in knowing how this story came to light and why. This whole situation simply reeks of politcal gamesmanship, at levels that would embarrass, I think, those benefitting from it. John Dickerson points out:
  

  You can laugh at Sanford, as you can laugh at a video of a wrecked Amy Winehouse falling all over her house. But at some point, even though they did it to themselves, you have to feel sorry for them as human beings. You can do that, I think, and not be a fan of adultery or drug use.
  I’m not offering Sanford’s humanity as an excuse. I’m just marveling at how few people stopped for a moment to even nod to it. My thoughtful colleague William Saletan and Andrew Sullivan were exceptions. Maybe there are others. Maybe people expressed these views in private conversations. But in the e-mails and Twitter entries and blog posts I read in the aftermath, Sanford’s human ruin was greeted with what felt like antiseptic glee.

  That, also, makes me wonder if the whole thing wasn’t politically motivated and so arranged.
  The bit with the emails is particularly precious. Clearly the law as regards privacy of communication was broken, here. (The law is so strict that it can be interpreted as saying you can’t tell your wife what your mother-in-law just said on the phone.) That crime… a felony… gets overlooked because, why, again? Because someone’s extra marital affair was thus exposed, thus giving a particular political party an advatage?

•  But an advanatge for what?  Well, the midterms for one thing.  But perhaps more directly, the current legislative efforts. Remember our discussions of the past few days, where I’ve noted the Democrats blaming Republican resistance for blocking their path to socialism?  As I say I don’t think the Republicans can take much credit for that, so fouled up are the Democrats themselves. That said however, if you were a Democrat who blamed the Republicans and wanted to distract them from reisitance to current legislation, wouldn’t this serve as a rather nice distraction?  Consider Martin Kady II from the Huddle Digest, this morning, (via email) as he lays out what’s going on:
  

  Maybe John Ensign should send Mark Sanford a thank you note? After all, Ensign’s run of the mill sleep-with-your-staffer affair has been bumped off the front pages by Sanford’s wacky, mind boggling, soap opera-esque Argentinian sex adventure.

  But while political junkies focus on yet another fallen GOP star, there’s a huge amount of consequential legislating getting done on Capitol Hill over the next 48 hours before Congress takes a week-long break.

  The climate change bill is heading toward House passage – and Al Gore is in town to rally the Democratic troops. President Barack Obama just left a huge door open to taxing higher end health care benefits – opening a new line of attack for Republicans. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is on the Hill today and Republicans and Democrats are planning on a full-scale attack over his actions during last year’s bailout. And the House ethics committee is increasing the heat on lawmakers who took a Caribbean trip that m ay have been underwritten by corporate interests.

  Gee, nothing the Democrats would like better than a distraction of the party opposite, in the face of all of that. Tossing the bit with Sanford in there is like tossing a few aligators in the swamp. When you’re up to your as in gators, it’s not easy to remember your original objective was to drain the swamp, right?  By the way The Huddle is a great resource. It’s available here.

• Stay Classy, Waffles:  John Kerry pipes up, yesterday…(Did you know he served in Vietnam?) and says, in response to the Sanford thing: “Too bad, if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.” Way to stay classy.  What an anal pore John Kerry is. But what does that say about his supporters, I wonder?
• About that cap and trade…. more properly called a cap and tax bill.. the WSJ has a great one up today on that topic.  So does Heritige. And yet the Democrats will continue pushing this nonsense and hiding any science that doesn’t agree with their agenda.

Eric, do we need to file a formal complain in Persian?   Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stolen our thunder.   Ahmadinejad has taken to mocking the one, fren Andy Barr, Politico:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad compared Obama on Thursday to former President George W. Bush.

Reacting to Obama’s comment Tuesday that he is “appalled and outraged” by crackdowns in Iran, Ahmadinejad said, “Mr. Obama made a mistake to say those things … our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously Bush used to say.”

“Do you want to speak with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about… I hope you avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it,” he added, according to Reuters.

• How dare Ahmadinejad mock the noe!   That is our job.
• The snide and mocking one, gets mocked.    How ironic.
• Obama outreached hand, gets bitten, yet again.

Memo to the one, before extending out your hand again, read Jonah Goldberg, via RCP:

Here is the one immutable fact of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy agenda as it relates to Iran: It’s over. The rule book he came in with is as irrelevant as a tourist guide to the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Memo II, also to the one, you ought to consider letting us produce your next infocommercial.   Your last one bombed, via Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.    So where  is Ron Popeil when you need him?

Another milestone:

Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and “Charlie’s Angels” stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, has died. She was 62.

So says CNN. Much too soon, but cancer is like that.

Farrah Fawcett has died, MSNBC:

Farrah Fawcett, whose stunning looks and blinding smile made her a pop icon of the 1970s, has died. She was 62.

Rest in Peace.

Michelle Malkin seems to think so, and I think she’s right.

The ruling liberal elites don’t mind messing with your healhcare,, because they intend to exempt themsleves for the restriction they intend to impose on you and your familly,    from Jake Tapper, ABC News:

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care

Whereas the one is not willing to trust his family’s medical care to his personal medical expetise, he is willing to play doctor for your family:

“There’s a whole bunch of care that’s being provided that every study, that every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier,” he said.

Gibson interjected that often patients don’t know what will work until they get every test they can.

“Oftentimes we know what makes sense and what doesn’t,” the president responded, making a push for evidence-based medicine

With Obama, evidence likely means to which politcal party you donated.  If Obama thinks that ObamaCare will be good enough for your family, make darn sure that is family has to live with it as well.

Steven Dinan, Washington Times:

The White House has rescinded the invitations to Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at U.S. embassies around the world.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said nobody from Iran RSVPed to come, and at this point, the invitations are no longer valid

Well done, Mr Presodemt.