Nightly Ramble:Happy Hump Day Edition

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

This is the “Happy Hump Day” Edition” The picture to your right is a railroad hump. It’s how cars are sorted in many rail yards around the country. You push the rail cars up the hill, and disconnect them and let them coast down the other side in a controlled manner into their spots in the yard below. This pic was apparently taken sometime in the 80’s, at Conrail’s old Frontier yard, at Buffalo.(You can drill it twice to get the full shot, if you like) You’re standing on Harlem Road, in Buffalo, on a bridge over the yard’s east end, looking west.  That’s Broadway, to your left. Yes, the same Broadway that the Goo-Goo Dolls sang about. Those trees are all gone, today. That’s the hump job front and center and extending to the north west(right of the shot). CSX took over operations at Frontier years ago, now, so it’s rare indeed you’ll see Conrail blue here, anymore. And starting just recently, you won’t see humping going on here anymore, either, since CSX has elected to close up major operations, here, after running a major yard here for most of 100 years. Somehow, “Broadway’s Dark Tonight” seems an appropriate tune.  Anyway, I thought I’d name today’s Ramble to mark the occasion.  What were you thinking I was talking about?

• Speaking of railroads:  I haven’t spoken here much of the Red Line crash down in DC. I did get into it at Joyner’s place, though. Ah, the wonders of government mass transit.
• Don’t cry for me, Argentina:  OK, I’ve just been watching the Sanford presser while putting the framework of tonight’s Ramble together. I must say, I’m impressed by his sincerity.  Give the man credit, he did the right thing.
•  Why now? A number of bloggers have commented on the number of Republicans caught in one kind of sex scandal or another in the last several months, all of them having presidential asperations.   Someone inclined to have extra marital affairs, is not going to do so because it’s suddenly the fashion among your political group inside the last six months. Yet, since January,  we have the sudden surge of activity since January.  So, what’s going on?    Hmmmm.
• Krugman and the housing Bubble  is one point I mentioned on the 17th of this month… last Wednesday.   Today, Reason follows up on that topic.  Well, last night, actually. Anyway:

• And what about his strawman protests that he didn’t cause the housing bubble, much less the Enron scandal or Kennedy’s assassination? The man is willfully missing the point. What is damning about these quotes is not that he necessarily caused anything. What is devastating about them is that they expose the intellectual bankruptcy of his economic principles. Those who look up to him like the second coming of Adam Smith should realize that the neo-Keynesian principles that lead him to advocate aggressive interest-rate cuts and mammoth public spending now, are the very same principles that led him to advocate inducing a housing bubble then

  And to the tech bubble before that, frankly. This has been exactly my complaint about the man for years, now. Meanwhile, Krugman and his Amen Chorus  go gleefully on.

• The presser:  Yeah, I saw what they’re calling a press conference, yesterday. I noticed for example, the obviously stacked deck with the Huff and Puff. But I also noticed something else… the press is apparently tiring of carrying Obama’s water for him. Someone at The Politico and later this morning at Fox, noticed that there were a number of words and references completely missing from the presser. Words like “Korea,” “Pakistan,” “soldiers,” “surge” “war”. Boortz adds that nobody used the words Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine, either. The chances of such a lack not having been planned,particularly for a White House that choreographs every bathroom visit, much less anything more public in nature, seems vanishingly small.
• Government healthcare on the rocks, please: Of course, one of the big things the presser was about was Obamacare, which is going down like GM stock. Obama, of course is trying to sell us on the idea that he’s not about removing private companies from the healthcare insurance field. From yesterday’s dog and pony show at the White House:
  

  Q: Wouldn’t that drive private insurance out of business?OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If — if private — if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care, if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.

  Well, it is when you consider that government has the force of law behind it, and is already regulating the bejezus out of the healthcare industry. If there were real competition, private companies would out perform the government every time. But are we really talking about free market competition when one side of that competition has the force of law over the other? Of course, Obama’s NEVER going to dare mention that. Nor are the Democrats in Congress. Well, most of them won’t. Some of them are balking at passing this monster, however. I noticed Harry Reid making a statement yesterday about how the Republicans have become the party of ‘no’. Well, while I’d like to think Republicans had that much courage. I don’t. The bottom line is that it’s the Democrats that have a near supermajority in both houses of Congress and have the White House… and can do any damn thing they want.   The real problem for them isn’t the Republicans. Rather, their problem in getting this monster passed is the number of Democrats who won’t vote for the Bill. In short, Dingy Harry’s blame shifting doesn’t stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. The fact is the American people rejected this nonsense when Hillary Clinton pushed it. They know it’s a turkey this time, too,a nd at least some Democrtas are actually daring to listen to their districts.

• Well, thank God for small favors: Word is John McCain won’t run in 2012.
• Can we have yet another IG scandal? Moe Lane says “Yes, we can!”
• Wow… Reality! What a concept!  Jen Rubin notes what I’ve been predicting all along… Obama Rhetoric would end up giving way to Universal reality eventually, and the results are not pretty.
  

  Reality is catching up to the president. He has lived in a world of media adulation and campaign spin ever since he announced his run for the White House. He has not had to face hard decisions and, instead, had the luxury of dismissing them as “false choices.” But now, both on foreign and domestic policy, the real world has intruded and it is not at all clear how — or if — the president will respond.

  Well, I’ll take the unusual step of disagreeing, slightly, with Jennifer. What he’s going to offer is quite predictable. He’s going to offer government. In other words, he’s going to offer exactly the wrong solution. All of this is going exactly as predicted here and at Pajamas Media, last January. (Has it really only been 6 months, now? It seems much longer.)

•  White House tries to take credit for the yearning for freedom in Iran:  I ran into this BS argument at Joyner’s last week from one of the usual suspects. It hardly matters which one, they tend to be interchangeable. The claim is that the spark for the current rebellion in Iran was Obama’s Cairo speech. Are we really to believe that people in Iran is so isolated from the goings on in Iraq and Afghanistan? Are we really to believe that the people in Iran have not seen what’s been going on in those other two countries?  Are we really to believe that their government’s attempts at isolating them from the remainder of the world has been so effective that they don’t understand that Hamas just got through being booted out of Lebanon?
  I’m going to suggest to you that all of this started with the actions of Mr. Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama is trying to claim it was his overtures in Cairo because he’s got nothing else to prevent Bush from getting the credit here… and if there’s one thing his mantra cannot withstand, It’s George W Bush looking good… Obama’s implementing Bush policy in the region not withstanding.   The freedom genie is out of the bottle now, and will not go back in willingly.  And yet we have Mr. Obama essentially holding his silence, when the situation calls for a response backing the people of Iran against the thugs running the government there, and then trying to credit himself for that same rioting?    It wouldn’t take a great deal of additional cynicism about Democrats in general and Obama in particular on my part to come to the conclusion that the reason that we’re going to see an entire generation of Iranian revolutionaries washed away by Islamist thugs with nary a word from the White House,  because the Democrats still can’t get over their Bush derangement syndrome. After all, what would the legacy of Bush be particularly as regards foreign policy, if it increased degree of freedom takes hold in Iran Iraq and Afghanistan due to his efforts? and before anyone starts up, I’ll remind you that  I’ve been downright brutal on George Bush occasionally, as the situation warranted it.  As I have been saying since 2000, however, his actions in Iraq are not among those situations. It has been the transformational action he advertised. What we see now is Obama trying to get in front of the lynch mob claiming it’s a parade he’s leading. How Clintonesque of him.Now, I’ll grant he turned up the noise a little at yesterday’s presser… but frankly, it’s too little too late, and too timid. Apparently the only place Obama manages courage is in spending other people’s money. Past that….

I haven’t felt this worth commenting on, but…

 

The State newspaper in South Carolina is reporting that Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., has been located as of Wednesday morning — in the Atlanta airport.

That’s after his whereabouts were unknown since last Thursday. And it turns out he was in Argentina for the past seven days — not, as his staff had said, hiking the Appalachian Trail.
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: The case of the missing governor has a new twist.

(Snip)

Oh, will you all please just friggin

STOP IT!!!!!!

Shut UP, sit DOWN, drop a lude or three, and RELAX for a moment.

It jolly well amazes me that so many who are used to dealing with press feeding frenzies don’t recognize the cause behind them, yet.

I’ll point out the historical fact that Teddy R used to go off grid rather a lot, while president.  You may notice that we survived it. OTOH, we back in those days, weren’t so totally dpendant on government, either.  I mean, loo, whose lives got changed, here? What are the risks involved? Not much, really. An elected official drops out of sight for a short time, and the press (Who really doesn’t want to see Republicans elected anyway) gets all hot and bothered?

Bottom line: The frenzy we’re seeing wouldn’t be occurring but for a possible presidential run against the One, and for that dependency government that demands government figures to always be the visible ‘father figure’… or is it big brother figure? I don’t remember, anymore. You guys are letting yourselves get used to whip this nothing up to something, bythe press. You remember who controls THEM now, don’t you? Need a reminder? Check out ABC tonight.
Get the picture?

A common description of the one’s presser was “testy”.    Here a flavor from, Michael Scherer, Time:

Jackson was not the only reporter the President cut off. When NBC’s Chuck Todd asked for the second and third time what consequences Iran would face for violating the human rights of election demonstrators, Obama protested. “I answered. I answered,” the President said, giving no concrete answer at all. “I answered your question, which is that we don’t know how this is going to play out. O.K.?” Obama queried rhetorically, clearly not caring what Todd thought.

Then don’t take my word for it,  go to the video:

Hat tip video:  Politco Wire.

Any effect begs for an explanation,  and here we have one, from Walter Shapiro, Politics Daily:

Barack Obama, as everyone knows, is one of the most disciplined, controlled and unflappable political leaders in modern times. Except when he grows testy. And during Tuesday afternoon’s press conference, the president’s inability to mask mild annoyance was on full display.

[…]

Instead, I am bringing this up because I want to tentatively advance a larger theory about the president’s public moods. Obama tends to drop his cool veneer and sound exasperated when he knows that he is in the wrong.

It is a natural human craving for power over another.   If I can push your buttons, I have power.    Clearly President Spock has a lot of buttons, and is very inept at hiding them.   Alas for poor Spock,  living in a delusional Obamaland is simply not adequate prepartion for real life and the real world.

Then on the bright side, the one’s policies are clearly moronic.   The so-called stimulus plan has crashed the economy.   If Shapiro’s Law is true,  Obama gets testy when he knows he is wrong, at least the one is smart enough to know that he is wrong.   The president is not a total moron.

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

This is the Campground Edition

• The signs: The surest sign that Obama and his people know Obamacare is in serious risk of being shot down in a ball of fire the size of Washington DC itself, is that Obama’s using his campaign slogans again to sell the thing. One can certainly understand why. When one looks past the slogans, he’s an empty suit pushing socialism. When the slogans come out to play, and he shovels some manure, with a ‘winning smile’, the morons just melt.  He pulled all the stops he could out at the presser today, and of course the press hit him with n really hard questions, as you’d expect. It’s an open question now, which will win out with the people; Slogans, delivered by a used car salesman, and repeated by an adoring press, or logic, and freedom.
• Regulating Blogs:  Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz:
  

  This Wednesday, ABC is turning an entire day of news programing over to the Democrats’ health care plan. Wouldn’t viewers alter their judgment of the accuracy and objectivity of ABC’s reporting on the subject if they knew that the ABC employees donated to Democrats 80 times as much as they did to Republicans? Certainly, I can’t help but note that if the circumstances were reversed, most people who see nothing wrong in ABC’s actions now would suddenly see ABC’s donations as profoundly undermining the integrity of ABC’s reporting.

  Now, of course, Love is talking about the regulation of Blogs, as proposed by the FTC yesterday, but this seems to speak to the campaign being run by the Administration to sell the minions… that is, you and I… on government healthcare. So, I picked that quote first, because it makes a rather nice bridge, and solidifies my point of how much Obama’s tossing at the problem of getting this monster past a cost weary public.   But as to the FTC proposal, Shannon starts out:

  So, the bright bulbs at Obama’s Federal Trade Commission have decided to regulate blogs based on the premise that undisclosed financial relationships between bloggers and businesses could lead bloggers to deceive their readers as to the value of products they blog about.

  Fairly innocuous on the surface. Who could complain about the fairness of that?  But it never stops at the entry level. As I said at OTB yesterday…

  Does anyone not understand that we’re looking at the first step toward control of the one voice government has been unable to control… Blogs?

  With ‘news’ agencies like ABC so clearly in the hip pocket of the liberals in the White House, what voice other than blogs stands between them and heir socialistic goals> Face it, the blogs and talk radio are the only people speaking out against the Obamacare bit, and other topics of the like… and guess which mediums the Federal Government wants to regulate? Yep… the blogs and talk radio. This ain’t rocket science, kids.

  Now, I’m not sure I’m down with Love’s call for regulations demanding that…

  the government should require that anyone legally defined as a journalist or publisher (such as for shield laws, broadcast licenses, etc.) be required to reveal their history of political affiliations in terms of political donations, membership in political parties and membership in political activist organizations.

  … because I see that as an opportunity for corruption of itself. I’m sympathetic, though to the reasoning behind the call. there’s no doubt in my mind at all that such bias  is currently prevalent in the news business, and not being required to reveal such personal biases isn’t helping matters. As I described it on Q&O a couple years ago:

  When standards go by the way, people tend to fall to their own devices, and beliefs. I submit that veering right or left from the mythical objectivity, is a direct result of the devices, and beliefs of the people in question… in this case press people.

  Now, by their own polling, the US press is a group of people who are overwhelmingly leftist to the tune of 85-90%. Which way will things fall among such a group, when those journalistic standards get bypassed? Which way is objectivity more likely to fail?

  As I have said, this leftist tilt of the press is by no means a policy of the press, but rather the failure of policy, which given the integral leanings of press people can hardly be avoided. Gravity kinda takes over.

  Now, we’re supposed to accept that government types are immune from these natural processes and can regulate Blogs, and on another vein, talk radio… the two remaining places where the left is being loudly opposed, in anything like an objective manner? Yeah, right.

• Hear, Hear!  Fired IG Walpin wants a congressional hearing on his case. Of course, given that Congress is run by the same Democrats who have been hauling Obama’s water on most other topics, he’s not going to get one. After all, something might get out that makes Obama not look like a water -walker.  Unless we get a Democrat or three who actually have morals and a spine. Not likely, but I mention it for completeness’ sake.
• Global cooling?  Yes, indeed. Al Gore: The gig’s up.
• Mind if I smoke? I gather that’s a touchy subject at the White House these days.  from the Nashville Post, by way of Reynolds.
• The swamp’s flooded again:  Again by way of Reynolds, comes a Washington Examiner article advising us that G.E. has hired Linda Daschle as lobbyist.  Snarks Glen: “Is that swamp drained yet?” Obviously not.  Is this the transparaency we were promised?

Prediction: It’ll be a cold day in Hell before Moe Lane ever lauds, Jane Hamsher.

Breaking:  Devil reports sales of Parka at all time record.

Video:

Hat tip and more: Moe Lane, Red State:

Sorry: normally I’d be more than happy to whale on Ms. Hamsher, but I’ve watched this particular segment twice – and aside from her tacit disagreement with Brian that this isn’t unexpected behavior (or isn’t better than President’s Bush’s) I’ve got nothing legitimate to toss at he

Well Obama did promise to end partisan politics as usual.   So now Barry has found a new way to bring left and right together.    Maybe Obama isn’t the total moron he seems to be.

You knew this couldn’t be far off. WHAM-TV is reporting:

(New York) — ABC’s Good Morning America has just announced that TV personality Ed McMahon has died at the age of 86.

McMahon is probably best known as Johnny Carson’s longtime sidekick on “The Tonight Show.” He was later seen as the face of the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

He’d been hospitalized, if I recall correctly, back in late January or early February at Reagan/UCLA for Pneumonia and other issues, and we’d not heard anything from him since then.

An announcer, myself, in former years, I always envied him his voice… a great one for Radio and TV.

Addendum:  (David L)

Very few, Charles Schulz, Paul Harvey,  and Johnny Carson, get to the the very best at what they did.    Among the  reasons that Carson owned late night television, is that Carson had the greatest second banana of all time, Ed McMahon, who ever forgot the that role of the second banana was to make the host look good.   No matter who was hosting, be it Carson,or any number of quest hosts, McMahon never failed to to his best to make the host look good.    McMahon was simply the best second banana of all time.  Nobody ever did it better.   Rest in Peace Ed.

Hat tip photo:   Associated Press.

From the DC area’s biggest news voice, WTOP:

WASHINGTON – An inbound Metro train smashed into the back of another at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of others in Metro’s deadliest ever subway accident.

D.C. Fire and EMS says rescue workers located three more bodies in the wreckage late Monday night. All three were declared dead at the scene.

Experts familiar with Metro’s operating systems tell The Washington Post operator error and failure of the signal system likely caused the deadly crash.

Reports from friends I have down that way suggest that on the order of 80 people were transported to hospitals, though the way of it usually is that the official number will be somewhat less. The motorman in the trailing train was among the dead.

I tend to agree with the report about the systems failure. There has to be some sort of combo of op error and systems failure at work here. Even assuming operator failure, the system shouldn’t have allowed the crash, being designed to avoid such things.

As you may imagine, the crash scene is still being dismantaled and investigated. I’m getting confused reports on today’s schedule, but the upshot appears to be that they’re getting trains by the accident site, and they’ll be running limited service on the RedLine today. However, officially, they’re suggesting alternate transporation.

By the way, the link above has an array of photos from the site.

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

This is the Rail car Graffiti Edition. Sorry about the blur, the thing was moving at track speed. (yeah, right)

• They’ve let us down before, Yvonne: Over in Hartford, Yvonne Davis demonstrates how Bush- type centrism has lost favor, as the Bush Appointee Defends of Chris Dodd:
  

  Over the years, Dodd has done many great things for our state. He continues to do so. Many residents call his office with desperate pleas for help that most politicians ignore.  He has stepped in at the eleventh hour. These people say, “I’ll never forget what he did for me or my family.”

  I won’t crucify Dodd nor join Republicans or Democrats who want his head. A person’s leadership can’t be measured only by the mistakes made, but in the lessons learned and the overall trend of their leadership. How’s Chris Dodd doing? The people of Connecticut will decide in 2010.

  What you seem to be missing Yvonne, is that this is not about what he’s done for the state, but rather, what he’s done to it, and with it, the nation.

  The voters of your state were led into supporting Dodd because he was “doing things” for the state, and because he handled one family or another’s issues for them with the government… something anyone in his position is likely to do. Sorry, what it is, Yvonne. Anyone you replace Dodd with will give you that, with possibly the added advantage of  not being a first class screwup. Oh… and Yvonne?  Generally speaking, “doing things” means bringing in Federal money. It’s amazing how many elections are bought with other people’s money, and how often other people’s money blinds voters to the moral and ethical problems a candidate brings to the table. Chris Dodd is a case in point. William Jefferson… he of the cash in the freezer fame… seems another. The voters of Jefferson’s state kept returning him to office too. And I’ll bet you he got between residents of his district and the full weight of government, too, eh?

  It’s time for us to stop judging the performance of our elected representatives by how much tax money they managed to divert to port projects within their state, and by how often they intercede between those constituents and government.  Judge them rather by how much damage they succeed in doing the nation by creating a government that requires intersession. then, too, there’s the screwup factor.  I would argue the Chris Dodd who unquestionably had a larger hand than most in the collapse of our financial sector, deserves serious scrutiny, followed by either a hasty exit or jail time.

• When the going gets tough, Obama goes for Ice Cream: Note to Ed Driscoll at Pajamas Media: : This situation isn’t just a matter of tone deafness…it’s a matter of being bloody well oblivious.  Seriously, now, what has Obama got to worry about?  If the Iranian revolution fails, he’ll simply blame it on Republicans somehow, and probably George W. Bush.  If on the other hand the thing by some miracle succeeds, we’ll hear all about how it was his secret plans and behind the scenes activities the job the job done.  We will hear nothing about Iraq and Afghanistan being what helped push the domino of Iran over.  Yes, that would be ignoring the contributions made by Mr. Bush.  Which in fact is the point.

• I can’t see a thing: Isikoff notices that Obama’s not all that ‘transparent”, after all. It’s not like you weren’t told, Mike.
  
• What do the first six months of Obama Mean? VDH explores the question over at Pajamas Media. I think we’ve discussed this, but Victor says it better.

• Label guns: No, Benen. Wrong as usual.  All it is, is yet another example of why I call George Will a Willing tool. The number of times you’re willing to quote him, is directly linked to the number of times he’s willing to carry the water for the left. Think I’m kidding? Well, let’s see. Postulate a John McCain Presidency.  Add to that our current situation… An Iranian election obviously falsified. 24 reporters jailed to silence them, and the rest of the press, they hope, with them. . Around 20 people killed by the Iranian government, in a rather public fashion. Explain to us how Steve Benen woldn’t be on the front lines, tar and feathers in hand, if Mccain had treated the thing as lightly as this misadministration has done.
• Too big to fail? The New York Times has begun to ask the question about being too big to fail means being too big to exist.  Only about four months behind the rest of us.  But notice; the one organization that that question is not being asked about is the Federal government.  I think it clear, that that’s the locus of the problem.
• More details on Neda: Hot Air Has ’em . Meanwhile, Robin Wright over at Time suggests there will be serious consequences for this woman’s death.
  

  The first clashes in January 1978 produced two deaths that were then commemorated on the 40th day in mass gatherings, which in turn produced new confrontations with security forces — and new deaths. Those deaths then generated another 40-day period of mourning, new clashes, and further deaths. The cycle continued throughout most of the year until the shah’s ouster in January 1979.

  The same cycle has already become an undercurrent in Iran’s current crisis. The largest demonstration, on Thursday of last week, was called by opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to commemorate the deaths of protesters three days after they were killed.

  Shiite mourning is not simply a time to react with sadness. Particularly in times of conflict, it is also an opportunity for renewal. The commemorations for “Neda” and the others killed this weekend are still to come. And the 40th day events are usually the largest and most important.

  “Neda” is already being hailed as a martyr, a second important concept in Shiism. With the reported deaths of 19 people Saturday, martyrdom also provides a potent force that could further deepen public anger at Iran’s regime.

  Ironically, and as Wright points out, the tactic of exploiting martyrdom was used by the current regime. We’ve now come full circle, and that tactic is about to be used against them. Truth is, I think they know it. Whether or not they can do anything to stem that tide, remains to be seen. Personally, I doubt it. 

• Looks almost like an ACORN Job: I know it’s not, or at least I think it’s not, but with stories like this one in the Iranian press you have to wonder just a bit.
  

  Iran’s Guardian Council has suggested that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of people eligible to cast ballot in those areas.

  The council’s Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, who was speaking on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Channel 2 on Sunday, made the remarks in response to complaints filed by Mohsen Rezaei — a defeated candidate in the June 12 Presidential election.

  “Statistics provided by the candidates, who claim more than 100% of those eligible have cast their ballot in 80-170 cities are not accurate — the incident has happened in only 50 cities,” Kadkhodaei said.

  That’s news that is not likely to quell the disturbance is going on over there.  Indeed, it will fuel them. There seems a number of American cities who could fall under that description after one of our elections, these last few years. The difference is in our case, nobody cares. And I wonder in the end, which path is the more damaging.

• Even the French? Did anyone notice the French Foreign Minister calling the actions of the Iranian Government “Brutal Repression’?  Explain to me how saying something of the like would have caused Obama problems,eh? Meanwhile, French President Sarkozy has left no doubt where the French Government stands:
  

  “In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles southwest of Paris.”The burqa is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement—I want to say it solemnly,” he said. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.”

  How bad is it when the French stand taller than the American President does? And how much worse is it likley to get?

• Bye Bye Analog:  I spoke last week about the stations around the country dropping analog signals that had been around for decades. Scott Fyfush today has lots of links  and pics about that transition. And vid links, too.. YouTube, mostly,made by folks who wanted tocatch the transition for posterity. An interesting and rare look behind the scenes. Not that the transition was without problems, as Scott explains in his weekly news reporting at NERW, along with the I-D-10 T factor so common to all technical transitions:
  

  …just about every station we’ve talked to has received at least one frantic phone call starting out, “why didn’t anyone tell me this was going to be happening?!?,” proving that no public education campaign can ever reach absolutely everyone…

  
  How disconnected need one be to claim with any degree of credibility, that this thing snuck up on them?  And if indeed, it did sneak up on them, it strikes me that they’ve not been watching the tube ror the last year or so and that thereby  it not working for them now is hardly to be considered an emergency, requiring federal help. Give them an Etch-A Sketch and tell them its the newest flatscreen design.  They’ll love it. Just remind them that these new digital TV’s tend to lose their picture when you shake them. 

• Perez Punch: There are so many directions I could take this…. There’s word from the good city of Toronto that the Black Eyed Peas manager punched Perez Hilton.  I wonder how many people reading the report wish they’d been the one to do that?

The utility of Paul Krugman to right-side bloggers, arguing against the left is nothing short of breathtaking. Case in point, his most recent article at the left-leaning New York Times. After years of complaining that Republicans were being too partisan, and begging for them to act in a bipartisan manner, look at how he acts toward those Democrats who act in a bipartisan manner:

The question now is whether we will nonetheless fail to get that change, because a handful of Democratic senators are still determined to party like it’s 1993.

And yes, I mean Democratic senators. The Republicans, with a few possible exceptions, have decided to do all they can to make the Obama administration a failure. Their role in the health care debate is purely that of spoilers who keep shouting the old slogans — Government-run health care! Socialism! Europe! — hoping that someone still cares.

The polls suggest that hardly anyone does.

Of course the last is a rather fat untruth… and one I’m not going to bother dismantling, today.

What Krugman has provided us with, though, is yet another example of how Democrats really view the bipartisanship they spent two decaes crying for. Once they got power, it all changed.

Earlier Eric remarked:

The polite leftist explanation for Obama‘s lack of serious response to the events in Iran has been that such a response would allow Iran‘s tyrannical leaders to blame the United States for the revolution currently occurring there.  There’s only one problem with that statement.  They’ve already blamed us.

But Barry did respond:

Hat tip and more:  Gateway Pundit.

President Barack Obama stands with daughters Malia Obama, 10, left, and Sasha Obama, 8, and orders frozen custard at The Dairy Godmother in the Del Ray area of Alexandria, Va., Saturday, June 20, 2009. (AP/Alex Brandon)

Considering the story was covered by a White House reporter, and  not from Fox, the event was staged.   This president is tone deaf, or stupid, maybe both.

Addendum:  (Update and Bump)

Hat tip photo:  Greg Pollowitz, National Review

Twice is no accident.   This is a designed, deliberate media campaign.  To what end?

(Addendum II) : Eric

I have to admit that thought has cross my mind, too, David.  There seems to me a deliberate attempt by the administration to cast Mr. Obama as not taking any of our problems, domestically or in the world at large, seriously. If it’s an attempt at projecting unworried competence, it’s a poor one.  If on the other hand, it’s an attempt to downplay these events, all it does is project Obama as more incompetant than we already thought him, and that will doubtless be reflected in the next Rasmussen poll. The last one was headed down, already.

It was nearly the end of the day, today , when I finally realized that I had not written anything in terms of a comment on the day.

Usually I tend to take the attitude that if I don’t have anything to say on a subject I won’t say anything at all.  Or perhaps, I will make a short comment and toss a link , but that’s all.  But there are occasions that seem to me to call for more comment than I’m capable of giving , and Fathers Day is one of them . But try as I might, today, I wasn’t getting it done.

Usually, when I can’t write something, it’s because my thoughts on the subject are well beyond crystallized, to the point where I consider it so obvious that no comment needs being made.  Other times, frankly, I simply don’t give a crap about a topic.  Events like Father’s Day come along and effortlessly blow all that out the window.  My lack of comment is not because I have nothing to say.  Indeed, the opposite is true; I have everything to say .  Yet, the words will not come into focus for me.  Perhaps, the reason for the difference here is that we are dealing more centrally on the issue of emotion, rather than on logic and reason…. The latter of which being by far the more simple to cast into words and discuss.

I think it this point, I’m just going to throw up my hands and repost something I wrote to address my thoughts on Father’s Day years ago.  I must tell you in all candor now, it’s one of the more personally difficult things I’ve ever written.  Perhaps some of you will see something of yourself in what I wrote, then :

-1-

I’ve always considered it something of a cruel, ironic joke, that he should have passed on, so close in the rolling year, to the day we’ve come to know as “Father’s day”… A hair longer than a week before it. There seems no particular significance to the relationships between the dates, but there’s no denying their closeness has always left me vaguely discomforted for reasons I’ve never fully worked out. Anyway;

I’ve come to understand quite a bit about my father in the last 15 years, or so. Oddly, most of my understanding came after he’d died a few years ago, and most of the revelations have been as a result of my having lived life. He’s never far from my thoughts, and so as life events unfold, I always have his guidance nearby to lean on, and his guideposts to measure by. And, as I go though this process, I’m leaning more about both who I am, and who he was.

And, oh boy has a lot ever happened since his death. Think about the changes in the last five years, in your own life. I suppose it could be fairly said that nothing has happened to me, though, that he hadn’t prepared me for. The funny part is, I didn’t know I was being prepared for it, at the time. I think he didn’t know what the future would bring, either. All he could do is impart the basic values, and hope I was able to apply them correctly. Apparently I have, for the most part.

What amazes me is how well I can hear his voice now that he’s passed on; in many ways, better than I ever could while he was alive. Those of you who have lost a parent will understand what I’m saying, here, I think. It is yet another cruel irony, I guess, that his voice seems to ring louder in my ears, in my head, now that he’s gone…. This is particularly true when value judgments come up. I suspect this is as it should be… Those being his most important lessons… But I still marvel at it all.

I also, within the last several years, find myself dimly aware that I’ve managed to pick up some of the traits he had, without trying. These are not things I’d picked up consciously… In fact, when I was seventeen, I think I might have made the choice to avoid these traits. Now at nearly three times that age, I have begun to regard adopting these things as the natural progression… That all is as it should be.

Dad was a product of his times. This is a crucial point to me of late, is the understanding of that one fact, because I still catch myself judging how I’m doing as a father, with my two boys, using his methods, and his… (what I will call for simplicity, though I mean nothing so flippant)… Style points…. As guideposts… And usually, in my estimation, coming up well short of that ideal in the judgment. It’s taken me quite a while… More time than most, I tend to think… To understand that those style points are nigh on useless given the difference between the times in which we live now, and the times then… That I have to look deeper than this. It’s something like allowing for inflation in an adjusted income figure over time, one adjusts the perception through for the times of each of us, there are more traits we share than we don’t.

I am reminded of this, today more than most days, as my two boys spend their day trying to make me feel special. I can see myself doing this at their age, and I marvel as history repeats itself. They tell me “Happy Father’s Day!” and mean it, and other than “thank you” (and a hug) I find myself unsure how to respond.

If you really want to know the truth, I’ve never been fully comfortable in the role of ‘father’, because I’m never sure I can fill the role I knew as father… Being, inside, the same scared- to- death twelve year old kid I was all those years ago. In thinking on this, I guess we, none of us, ever really grow up to the point where that small scared child is ever completely silent. We’d better hope not, anyway… That twelve year old kid is needed to keep us from falling into the Scrooge-like insanity, I think… as I wrote last Christmas. Still, we try to balance that twelve year old inside us with reality… A hellish task I don’t wish on anyone, but one we all face, I think.

An old Moody Blues tune comes into my mind, unbidden. It seems to speak to this situation rather clearly.

All my life, I
Never really knew me
’till today
Now, I know why;
I’m just another step
Along the way

…

I don’t know what I’m searching for
I never have opened the door,
Tomorrow might find me at last,
Turning my back on the past,
But, time will tell, of stars that fell,
A million years ago.
Memories can never take you back, home, sweet home.
You can never go home anymore.

That’s the reality that twelve year old inside us, doesn’t want to hear. But… And I don’t care if you’re a hundred and five years old; that twelve year old is still inside us, and still of a mindset that he’s waiting for his adult life to begin, and that mindset dims our vision to the reality that our adult life has ALREADY, long past begun. In many ways, I finally see this is a conflict we play out internally, all our lives. Implicit in that understanding, however, is the recognition that, for all that I held him to be when I was a child, Dad still had that twelve year old in HIM, too. Like the milestone of five years gone… Like the waking up in the morning, through the aches and pains and understanding that the grey-bearded guy in the bathroom mirror really IS me…it’s a startling discovery.

Its amazing, if you think on it for very long… All our childhood, we champ at the bit like race horses spoiling for a race to get started. Even at the very young ages, we yearn for adulthood…(“I’ll do it MYSELF, Daddy…”) When we finally do get to adulthood, we end up spending a lot of our young adult lives in this in-between stage, not fully understanding that the green flag has dropped, the race is on, and the turtle’s already got a 30 length lead, Mister Rabbit… And some of us never do make it beyond this stage at all, on ANY level.

It’s what Hayward of the Moodies was talking about in that same song I quoted before;

I lie awake for hours, I’m just waiting for the sign

When the journey we are making has begun,
Don’t deny the feeling that is stealing through your heart,
Every happy ending needs to have a start.

Perhaps I now have a working definition of a mid-life crisis; the feeling that I need to get going on things, because I’m running out of time.

Such are my thoughts this Father’s day.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. This is me saying “I get it, now… at least part of it… better than I did. We were more alike than I knew.”, and it’s my Father’s day gift. More of you survives than either of us knew… and is with me every day.

And yet, I miss you.

• @mattmargolis Depends how much he contrubes to obama's relection campaign #
• I am listening to the Iran Party Like its 1979 show by Rick Moran on BlogTalkRadio – http://tobtr.com/s/573595 #
• Did you know Alois Alzheimer's birthday was Sunday? I forgot it myself.  #
• RT@michaeljohns "My friends, we live in the greatest country in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it.  #
• @RT DanRiehl Not Just Walpin – 3 IG Firings Being Questioned http://twurl.nl/cjir2p #
• RT @DanRiehl ABC's Troubling Political Donations http://twurl.nl/ml3t23 now we know y they think hcare show isn't a prob #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident pajamasmedia.com/blog/speak-out-for-freedom-mr-president/ #tcot #fail #hhrs #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident http://bit.ly/aArih
  #tcot #fail #hhrs #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident http://bit.ly/aArih
  #tcot #iran #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident http://bit.ly/aArih
  #tcot #iran #
• Iran's riots are not about the election anymore. #tcot #iran #fail #HHRS http://bit.ly/JrbID #
• @chucksimmins Are we going to see this fight for freedom lost because Obama's still suffering from BDS?  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins THere is that, I suppose. THe guy could screw upthe intricate task of falling down. Still… As an American…  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins By the way, did you see my Pajamas Media writeup yesterday?  in reply to chucksimmins #
• Speak Out for Freedom, Mr. President http://bit.ly/kq1Mj #
• @chucksimmins True enough but it strikes me that this is an opportunity to alter that status in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins Gven Obama's objections to such operations, I would. Indeed, I'd be shocked.  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins Maybe, but I suspect he's flaiing around looking for someone to blame.  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @MelissaTweets Exactly. I spoke to that one last night: http://bit.ly/JrbID in reply to MelissaTweets #
• Check out Iran’s Riots are Not About the Election @ http://bitsblog.theconservativereader.com/?p=21813 #
• @JTlol I dunno. Likley, less people died in Tiananmen, from what I'm seeing, so clinically, the statement may be correct. #iranelection in reply to JTlol #
• America needs a leader who will speak unequivocally about freedom. What we have instead is Barack Obama.  #
• You need to read Don Surber's piece this morning http://bit.ly/Qp4G2 #TCOT#HHRS #IRAN #FAIL #
• @EdMorrissey You mean it isn't the Bush Administration? #tcot in reply to EdMorrissey #
• @EdMorrissey Lemme telya, Ed… This entire admin will be aboutshowig us how many things Bush got right.Unintentionally of course #TCOT in reply to EdMorrissey #
• @frank717 RT:MSNBC is all reruns because nobodys watching Me:No, it's bc there;s no way to spin cur events 2 make Urkel look good #TCOT in reply to frank717 #

• @mattmargolis Depends how much he contrubes to obama's relection campaign #
• I am listening to the Iran Party Like its 1979 show by Rick Moran on BlogTalkRadio – http://tobtr.com/s/573595 #
• Did you know Alois Alzheimer's birthday was Sunday? I forgot it myself.  #
• RT@michaeljohns "My friends, we live in the greatest country in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it.  #
• @RT DanRiehl Not Just Walpin – 3 IG Firings Being Questioned http://twurl.nl/cjir2p #
• RT @DanRiehl ABC's Troubling Political Donations http://twurl.nl/ml3t23 now we know y they think hcare show isn't a prob #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident pajamasmedia.com/blog/speak-out-for-freedom-mr-president/ #tcot #fail #hhrs #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident http://bit.ly/aArih
  #tcot #fail #hhrs #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident http://bit.ly/aArih
  #tcot #iran #
• New at Pajamas Media: Speak up for Freedom MrPresident http://bit.ly/aArih
  #tcot #iran #
• Iran's riots are not about the election anymore. #tcot #iran #fail #HHRS http://bit.ly/JrbID #
• @chucksimmins Are we going to see this fight for freedom lost because Obama's still suffering from BDS?  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins THere is that, I suppose. THe guy could screw upthe intricate task of falling down. Still… As an American…  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins By the way, did you see my Pajamas Media writeup yesterday?  in reply to chucksimmins #
• Speak Out for Freedom, Mr. President http://bit.ly/kq1Mj #
• @chucksimmins True enough but it strikes me that this is an opportunity to alter that status in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins Gven Obama's objections to such operations, I would. Indeed, I'd be shocked.  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @chucksimmins Maybe, but I suspect he's flaiing around looking for someone to blame.  in reply to chucksimmins #
• @MelissaTweets Exactly. I spoke to that one last night: http://bit.ly/JrbID in reply to MelissaTweets #
• Check out Iran’s Riots are Not About the Election @ http://bitsblog.theconservativereader.com/?p=21813 #
• @JTlol I dunno. Likley, less people died in Tiananmen, from what I'm seeing, so clinically, the statement may be correct. #iranelection in reply to JTlol #
• America needs a leader who will speak unequivocally about freedom. What we have instead is Barack Obama.  #
• You need to read Don Surber's piece this morning http://bit.ly/Qp4G2 #TCOT#HHRS #IRAN #FAIL #
• @EdMorrissey You mean it isn't the Bush Administration? #tcot in reply to EdMorrissey #
• @EdMorrissey Lemme telya, Ed… This entire admin will be aboutshowig us how many things Bush got right.Unintentionally of course #TCOT in reply to EdMorrissey #
• @frank717 RT:MSNBC is all reruns because nobodys watching Me:No, it's bc there;s no way to spin cur events 2 make Urkel look good #TCOT in reply to frank717 #

I don’t want to hit this one too hard… But I’d appreciate it if you’ve visit BitsBlog Advertisers and see what they have to offer you.  In the end, they’re the ones paying my server bills, here.

You know this is coming directly from Rasmussen Reports; There’s no way a mainstream press outlet will dare mention this:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 32% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That’s the President’s lowest rating to date and the first time the Presidential Approval Index has fallen below zero for Obama .

Go and look at the report itself for full details.

As an offhanded observation, I’d say the Honeymoon’s over.