Snark of the Day: PalinPAC

[I]t would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman,”

[Sarah] PalinPAC spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton via ABC News.

Make what you will of the statement.

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

This is the First Dept Edition

• From our Dept of Intemperate Thoughts: So, now that Whalen has (wrongly, I think) apologized for ‘outting’ that Publius moron, when might we expect an apology for “outingouting” Jeff Gannon?  About the time that the nether-world’s refrigeration equipment gets repaired, I suppose. Aren’t double standards wonderful? You can’t begin to understand how pissed I am about Whalen backing down. He should
• Honorable Mention: At OTB’s caption contest.
• Chastity?  An odd name, given both the parentage and the circumstances.  I know David’s commented on this, but I can’t resist linking James here…  I ask him and his readers:(Slight edit for a context foul-up on the voice unit)
  

  I guess one aspect of this that we can discuss without being lined up in front of a firing squad, is the prevalence of these occurrences in what I will euphemistically refer to as “high achievement families”.What is the connection here? We know, for example, that children of parents who’ve been divorced are at least 50% more likely to become divorce themselves, statistically speaking.

  We certainly know that there is a certain level of pressure attached to stardom, either attaining it or having attained it, dealing with it.

  Is it that we hear more often about such incidents within these families because they are in the public eye? Or is there something unique about such families that causes the children of such families to become what they do?

  One of the regulars there suggests most “transgendered” people don’t come from star families, but I’ve no data to support that, and he offerers none. Even a higher incidence of such would seem to support the idea of a connection.

• John Wayne:  Finally, I know I’ve linked James twice already, but this got by me yesterday, with all that happened to me yesterday and trying to write what became “Fathers”  and frankly I’m annoyed with myself for missing it, particularly in that context. . James reminds us that yesterday marked the 30th year since John Wayne’s passing. I find myself mildly amused. My Dad was no John Wayne, certainly, but I wonder what he’d have said had he understood the connection.
• Let me tell you how it will be:  The IRS is reportedly considering forcing you to pay a tax on your work cell phone, says The Wall Street Journal.:
  

  The use of company-issued mobile phones could trigger new federal income taxes on millions of Americans as a “fringe benefit.”The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee’s annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit. Under that scenario, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax.

    All of this, of course in an attempt to pay for the huge spending going on from the Obama Administration.  I suspect we’re going to find this is just an indicator of what’s to come.  And, it’s not like you weren’t warned. It’s not like nobody told you this stuff was coming if you put the Democrats in power. Are you ready to believe me now?

•  Ummmm… we did this way, again?  So, they managed to fire Carrie Prejean quietly, after the furor had died down about her ‘controversial’ views on one man one woman equals marriage.  Well, of course that smells. But look at the new “Miss California” and her position on the matter, in a note from Joe Kovacs at WND:
  

  Tami Farrell, the newly crowned beauty queen who is replacing the ousted Carrie Prejean as Miss California, apparently holds the same view as her predecessor, Carrie Prejean, and President Obama that marriage should be between a man and a woman.Fox News host Neil Cavuto asked Farrell, who is Christian, on his show today:

  “[Prejean] went out and said that a marriage is between a man and a woman. Do you share that view?”

  Farrell responded in the affirmative with a simple, “Uh huh.”

  “You do, OK,” said Cavuto.

  Farrell quickly added: “I don’t think that I have the right or anybody has a right to tell somebody who they can or can’t love. And I think that this is a civil rights issue. And I think that the right thing to do is let the voters decide.”

  Fly in the ointment is of course, that they have, in fact, so decided.  Twice, now.  “Perez Hilton” was unavailable for comment. Actually, that’s not true… I simply didn’t bother with the putz. Why does anyone else?

• Slobbering Barney walks:  Even MSNBC’s softballs are too much for Barney Frank. He walked out on their interview when being asked about his plans to limit executive compensation levels.  When your positions can’t even stand up to the softballs tossed by MSNBC, you’re in serious trouble. Boortz quips:
  

  

  Boortz

  He knows that he can’t rationally explain why the government should be able to set any type of guidelines or regulations on pay levels at private companies.So Barney Frank, the quintessential void surrounded by a sphincter muscle, throws a hissy fit and declares the interview to be over and rips out his earpiece. Haines’ response, “Fine, goodbye sir. We’ll manage without you.” Ain’t that the truth.

  Here’s hoping we get the chance… and soon. Please?  By the way, the WSJ has an article up on that you’ll want to read.

•   SITYS  again: You will perhaps recall from yesterday, my comments on the left trying to score political points  on the shootings yesterday in DC… justifying both the DHS “report” slandering returning Iraq war vets as a terrorism threat and anti-gun legislation? true to form the New York Times chief resident fool, Paul Krugman steps up to the mike and spews, and gets cut off at the knees by Jonah Goldberg.
  

   Pretty much the entire media establishment is comfortable labeling von Brunn as a member of the “far right.” Putting aside other objections to that nomenclature, if von Brunn is a member of the far right, then it would be helpful and journalistically responsible if the press would start calling Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, et al., moderates and centrists.

  

  Jonah Goldberg

  That won’t happen, because the whole point of these exercises is to paint the Right as an undifferentiated blob of evil. Never mind that von Brunn isn’t a member of the far right. Nor is he a member of the far left, as some on the right are claiming. He’s not a member of anything other than the crazy caucus. Von Brunn’s True North is conspiratorial anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. He’s not a member of the Christian Right. In fact, he denounces Christianity — just as Hitler did — as a Jewish plot against paganism and Western vigor. Nor is he a capitalist. Again, just as Hitler did, he hails socialism as the solution to the West’s problems.Still, if we are going to play this game where we take the words of politicians and pundits, compare them to the words of murderers and psychopaths, and then assign blame accordingly, then let’s blame the New York Times, Chris Matthews, left-wing blogs everywhere, and the academics who penned The Israel Lobby (which blames a fifth column of Israel loyalists for our troubles).

  Rand Simberg looks at the facts and comes to the same conclusion, in a piece I wish I’d written, over at Pajamas Media.  And let me add to both of them and raise the question about Israel.

  If Jew Hating is the mark of the right, how is it that the most hostile president to Israel and their survival, currently resides in the White House, as a far-leftist Democrat, who sat in Jerry Wright’s Church of hate for 20 years? Did you see Wright’s comments the other day? Lots of folks covered this, but Fox’s Grapevine is handy…

  President Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, says White House officials will not allow his former church member to contact him. Wright tells the Chicago Tribune: “Them Jews ain’t going to let him talk to me. They will not allow him to talk to somebody — who calls a spade what it is.”

  Wright’s sermons blaming the US for 9/11, and charging that the government created the AIDS virus, caused an uproar last year and led Obama to leave his church. But Wright says he has no regrets: “Regret for what? That the media went back 5, 7, 10 years, and spent $4,000 buying 20 years worth of sermons?”

  Call a spade what it is? My, my… an unfortunate choice of words, isn’t it?

  Wright attempted to clarify his remarks during a radio interview today, saying he meant to use the word “Zionists” instead of “Jews.”

  Ah, OK. That makes it all go away, doesn’t it? And we’re supposed to think that Obama, who sat in the pew for 20 years in front of this guy, isn’t going to be affected in any way by this purveyor of hate? Or, laughably, that he’s controlled by the “Jewish lobby” (oops… Zionist Lobby) ?   Just let all of that roll around for a few minutes. Then go laugh into Paul Krugman’s voice mail.

•  Miranda rights for Terrorists? This is without a doubt, one of the more downright stupid actions I’ve seen from a White House that’s become known for downright stupidity.  These are not criminals. They are combatants, and we are in a war. Obama’s still trying to convince us of the fantasy that because he’s in office, the war is over.  Stupid.
• Back to Ba$ic$: Nice post from Doug Thorburn by way of Mike Shedlock.  Doug points out that in spite of having the highest taxes in the nation, the state is broke. Some basic logic, then eminates from this… If their taxes are the highest in the nation, clearly the shortfall  isn’t not due to them not taxing enough…. (A point which would seem to be confirmed by the number of poeple leaving for lower tax states), then perhaps they’re spending too much, huh?  And why are they spending too much?  Because government has is too big. It’s gotten into every area of life in California.  It’s now to the point where there isn’t an action or inaction that occurrs without the government approving it (and taxing it) or disapporving of it, and spending huge sums of money to enforce it’s will on the point. And so California, so goes the nation, as the rush to adopt California Environmental standards shows us.
• WHO, Again?  Seems the WHO has decided there’s a problem with Swine Flu.  Gee, we’ve had this in our headlines since January, and they’re just now declaring an alert? One more example of how you can’t slip anything by the UN. My guess is that their next discovery will involve a mutation of the the Swine flu involving the Avian flu that we dealt with a couple years ago. It’s be called the Flying Pig flu, for short. I predict they’ll hold several meetings on the topic at Turtle Bay on the issue, at which they will decide the US has to pay $167 million to halt the spread of the bug.

Shades of Richard Nixon, Byron York has dug into Barack Obama firing of AmeriCorps Gerald Walpin. It seems that  Walpin had the audacity to investigate Obama’s political supporter, and hack, Kevin Johnson. from Washington Times:

The AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.

Note that Johnson is black.  It does seem that Eric Holder’s Justice Department is indeed color blind.

Hat tip and more: Shublog,  Ace of Spades Hq:

The difference is, in this version, the media is the Charles Colson-esque attack dog protecting the president. Other than that, this smells a lot like abuse of power.

Michelle has more and dumping the mess into the lap of Michelle Obama:

With intervention from Michelle Obama, the Americorps inspector general was given the boot and replaced — for doing his job too well, it seems, and uncovering squandering of funds by favored contributors, educational institutions, and left-wing groups

What ever happened to that post-racial thingy?

addendum: (Eric):

And for that matter, whatever happened tothe  Transparency we were promised???

 Reynolds is tracking this one, too. You know damned well the Dinosaurs won’t.

 Ed Morrissey has apparently made the same connection:

David Freddoso tried to explain that the only change Barack Obama would bring to the Beltway would be an introduction of the Chicago Machine politics that made him successful to the Beltway.  The Inspector General of AmeriCorps, one of Obama’s pet projects, has discovered this the hard way. 

Personally I”m reminded of Nixon firing Archibald Cox, myself… except for the part where the Democrats have a fit about it. Of course, that part won’t happen here.

WordPress has announced version 2.8 is up.

This is a major upgrade, as I gather it.  We’ll be running the upgrade sometime after about 8pm tonight, or over the weekend, depending on how happy I am with the state of the backups. Should only create a few minutes out outage, and I’ll tell you when we’re completed.

Rush Limbaugh on feminism:

“The feminist movement was created to allow ugly women access to the mainstream of society”

The Poca Pundit, b/k/a Don Surber:

Too many American liberals cannot handle a strong, good-looking, intelligent, independent woman who disagrees with them – and so they make the crude, cruel and sexist remarks – including those about raping them or their 14-year-old daughters

Hat tip:  Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.

Krauthammer, Obama, Israel:

From  Gateway Pundit:

Charles Krauthammer delivered this blow to Obama after his treacherous speech to the Muslim World from Cairo last week: “Obama Did More In 3 Minutes To Delegitimize Israel Than Any Pres In American History.”
Krauthammer was obviously not impressed with the president’s destructive attitude towards our ally Israel:

Video:

More Sarah v. the Pig, Katie Connolly, Newsweek: 

Letterman is right to admit to poor taste here, but your Gaggler doesn’t think that’s sufficient. His comments reek of a misogyny that relegates women to roles as either virgins or sluts. Poor taste indeed Mr. Letterman, but perhaps vulgar and unnecessary are better descriptions

The kook killer was a ‘rat, Gateway Pundit:

Sorry Dems– This socialist kook killer is all yours…
The Holocaust Museum killer James von Brunn was targeting conservative magazine The Weekly Standard.

Does that send a tingle up your leg Chrissy?

A celebutard and her money are soon parted.   What some girls will do to avoid becoming part of Letterman’s monologue.  TMZ is reporting with baited breath:

Chastity Bono — Becoming a Man

Chastity Bono, civil rights advocate, journalist, author and musician, is in the early stages of changing his gender — transitioning from female to male, TMZ has learned.

Bono, the child of legendary entertainers Sonny and Cher, began the process earlier this year, shortly after his 40th birthday.

Not quite.   Mike Pechar,  Jawa Report, quips:

According to Chastity Bono’s publicist, the daughter of Sonny and Cher wants to become a man. Reportedly, she’s in the early stages of changing gender.

It’s not clear whether Chaz will continue to be a lesbian at the core or if she will become a gay male as happened recently with another lesbian gender-switcher.

Sorry guys,   Ms Bono was born a female, and she will die a female.   No amount of genital mutilation can alter that fact.  Sex is immutable   I wonder if ObamaCare will cover this medical fraud?

Oh well.  At least it will keep Meghan McCain out of the news.

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

This is the “Bit’sBar” edition.

Lots going on tonight. Pour yourself a cold one, and let’s get to it.

• A tale of two murders: LaShawn Barber  over at Pajamas Media does her usual fabulous job of getting to the heart of an issue, as she compares the murder of Private Long at the Recruiting Station in Little Rock to the murder of late-term abortionist George Tiller, and finds that the narrative being carried about each story is instructive, particularly in comparison.  Personally, I’d be interested in her take on all that, within the context of the shooting in DC yesterday, that both David and myself discussed here.
•  About those toenails:  I made mention here yesterday about the Palin women and the left’s pursuit of them… and of course we’ve spoken at length about Carrie Prejean, and that whole mess too. Don Surber takes a wide angle view of why liberals castigate women. Must read.
• Oops. Rosanne is gone, now, too?
  

  Brain Mahoney, the Radio Equalizer.

  Now that he’s in office, should dedicated Obamists support the president even as key campaign promises are broken and empty rhetoric becomes the order of the day? While many liberal talk hosts may be willing to do so, Roseanne Barr isn’t one of them.

  So says the Radio Equalizer… All in line with what I predicted here last January. I mean, let’s face it, the woman is an idiot, albeit a loudmouthed idiot. But if even she’s getting the message, what kind of turnover does anyone suppose is going to happen in the next couple election cycles?  This ain’t rocket science, kids. Keep a watch, and you’ll see more of this kind of happening ramping up… and the dinosaurs ignoring it.

• We now know Obama’s ‘compensation czar:  Kenneth Feinberg.  Ya know, does anyone remember what happened with wage and price controls the last time it was tried in this country? Apparently not.  Let’s remember, gang, the people we now have running this circus have mostly never held a real job in their entire life, and are in government specifically because they have no clue, or interest in how businesses work in a free market arrangement.  They don’t’ believeReynolds We’re in a free market arrangement. So, this is supposed to help the economy?  Does any of this help in the area of wealth creation?  No, it doesn’t.
• Here goes Oil again. Prices are heading up again. Yet another thing he current government knows little and cares less about.
  

  Glenn Reynolds

  We’re seeing predictions of $250/bbl. I dunno as it’ll get that high, but I won’t discount it.  Reynolds quips:
  

  If gas gets up to five dollars a gallon again, we’ll get stories on how that’s good because it forces us to conserve.…

  Sad part is, he’s right…. and this is exactly what the Democrats WANT. Did anyone think when Obama shut down chatter about offshore drilling ramping up, that it would go any other way?  Think there’s no connection between Obama getting into office and the price of oil doubling in less than six months? This is going to help get our economy moving again?  This is a wealth -killer, folks.  Even for the low income folks. I’m telling you, people, we’re already halfway to serfdom. Oh, Hopey changitude.

•  Opening up America?  Doctor Krauthammer,  for whom I’ve always had great respect, makes the case today that Fox News “opened America” by breaking the liberal monopoly over broadcast media.

Fox has done a great service to the American polity — single-handedly breaking up the intellectual and ideological monopoly that for decades exerted hegemony (to use a favorite lefty cliché) over the broadcast media.

I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting — half the American people. The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism.



Doctor Charles Krauthammer

.-.-.

That’s why Fox News is so resented. It altered the intellectual and ideological landscape of America. It gave not only voice but also legitimacy to a worldview that had been utterly excluded from the mainstream media.

I’m proud to be part of this televised apostasy. And particularly proud to be part of the single best news program on American television, the six-o’clock news — first with Brit Hume, now with Bret Baier. How good is “Special Report”? So good that even if I weren’t on it, my mother would watch it — and she spent 50 years as a Democrat.

Hmmm. With great respect to the Doctor, I think in thankfully playing to the giddy audience this speech was delivered to, he may be overstating the case somewhat.  There’s no question that the monopoly has been broken.  At least, that is,  until government steps in to the picture, re-establishing that  leftist monopoly with ‘fairness’ oriented legislation, regardless of what they call it.  There’s also no question in my mind that monopoly being gone is a good thing, assuming actual results come of it.    there’s the thing; What IS in fact the result? What changed as a result of all that?  Do we now have an overwhelming conservative majority in congress? Do we have a conservative president?  Are our state and local governments being swept with a conservative wave?

No, quite the contrary. At least as of last January, we had a liberal tide washing over the country, for good or ill…(I think ill) There seems little question that the reportage of events, since that time has swung the sentiments of many, even strong Obama supporters, in the other direction.  Things being what they are, I wonder if it wouldn’t have happened that way in any event.

I point to the UK as a parallel example. There is no really right-wing press in England… or even  balanced, as Fox is.  The biggest outlet, there last I knew, and certainly the most established, is the government owned BBC, and in watching both their domestic output and their exported “BBC America” one can hardly miss the left leaning, pro-Labour party nature of the thing. Yet, in the most recent council elections, there, Labour got itself trounced in historic proportions, and the next national election looks to be a rout of the same scope. (Fairness… I’ve not seen recent viewership numbers there, but if Fox sister/counterpart Sky News is getting serious numbers there, perhaps we have some indication of our next election cycles, I don’t know.)

However that may be, we’ve really yet to see electoral result from this breaking of the leftie monopoly on news media in this country. As such, I wonder if Doctor Krauthammer’s victory dance isn’t a bit premature.

I commented the other day, about Billy Beck’s writing on the anniversary of his father’s death.  As I told him offline, in other correspondence, he has the (I think, rare) gift for casting the thoughts surrounding those events into words. I think it has to do with his thought processes. I dont’ think his emotions surrounding it all are that unique… as I told him, I saw a lot of myself in this piece of his. I think it’s that he actually sits down and sorts out those feelings so as to accurately cast them into words.

I comment on all of this again, because today marks the 9th year my Dad’s been gone from us.  He’s certainly special to me, as Billy’s Dad is to him. But I got a rather special glimpse of him through my wife’s eyes for a few years, there. Her father died before we met, and as she and I grew closer, and got married and started out lives together,  I watched as my Dad became more of a father figure to Donna, too.  That made me attend in detail, what a special guy he was.  Sometimes, you need to see things though someone else’s eyes… a second perspective to get real focus on the matter.

I’ve commented on my Dad previously, of course.  In looking at that piece, I still think it powerful, but perhaps it’s just me because the thing is so personal, i don’t know.

In looking at the Calendar, I see Father’s day is coming up again on the 21st of this month… a little over a week away, now.  They don’t read this site much, so I take no caution here in telling you that on that day, my boys will, as they have in post years, go about trying to make me feel special. For the last nine years or so, that has always made me a little sad, mindful that I won’t have that chance with my own Dad, again.

I’ll leave the messages there, implicit.

No question what the biggest story yesterday was.

The Biggest story yesterday was an 88 year old nutbag walking into the Holocaust museum in DC and opening up with a long gun. Not suprisingly, the lone gunman was a Neo-Nazi.

Just as unsurpising, the security guard hadn’t even died yet, much less the blood dried before the usual leftie suspects trotted out their point making efforts, which ended up making more noise in the sphere than the chatter about the original event.  I won’t link them, but the claims include the worthiness of gun bans and the DHS report on former Military being a threat, is now to be considered valid, based on this event.

Of course, several questions arise, all of them uncomfortable to those making such claims.   

First among these: How was this guy not already labeled a threat… and treated as such… even absent that politically motivated DHS ‘report” on the basis of a long history which was out there for everyone to see?  The fact is, this guy was a well-known nutbag, even absent the much vaunted DHS report, and was able to act, despite all laws to the contrary.  The evidence of this guy’s being a nutter has been there for decades, now. So this validates the DHS report how, again? 

Secondly, how is it that he managed to get a long gun into a building supposedly protected by metal detectors, which itself is smack dab in the middle of  a “victim disarming zone”?  So much for the law, and so much for the anti-Heller argument we’re seeing brewing on the left just now over this.

It would seem there’s a few holes in the leftie theory. 

For a historical perspective, same goes for McViegh, for that matter.  As I pointed out at the time, there was much in the way of evidence already on this guy, before that event.  Yet we never saw it coming?  Why not?

 Of course, as Clinton found with McVeigh, it’s all much easier to blame the whole thing on talk radio, and a vast right wing conspiracy, to blame the whole thing on your political enemies huh?  Tar them all with the ‘extremist’ label, to damn them by association. We’ve already seen some of this, and we’ll see more from the left over the next few days. No large predictive feat, this… we see it every damned time.   This thing is going to take a year at least to go through the court system, and will see huge coverage the whole way… I won’t be amazed to see CNN and MSNBC going wall to wall on it. each ‘report’ giving new opportunity for the usual suspects there, and on the ‘Sphere to further cast aspersions on the right. Just the thing going into an election cycle, if you’re a leftist seeking something to focus attention on, other than the massive failure your party has been with things like the economy, etc.

James W. von Brunn

The rest of this is also eminently predictable… we’ve seen it in Germany and Russia and around half the third world over the years. the removal of those tarred by association, from society, the discrediting of dissenting voices, as we head for the “great goal”.    Based on what we’ve seen out of The Obamanation so far I wouldn’t put any of it past them, would you, really? It all fits, and  all too neatly.

As to the motivation of von Brunn, look; this one’s simple enough. He’s 88. Close on the end of the run.  I suspect “Suicide by Security Guard”… Instead of home in bed helpless, he wanted to die in a blaze of glory fighting against “the Jews”, to be a martyr to “the cause”…   And of course, true to form,  he fouled even that pathetic action up.

Breakfast Scramble is now like Microsoft. It is now a feature and not merely a bug.,

Sarah v. Letterman, John Ziegler gets a wee bit snide and testy with MSNBC. View the video on Real Clear Politics.    I found Ziegler juvenile, but then I find Chris Matthews foolish and Keith Olbermann hyperbolic and disgusting.    So considering the network, I score Ziegler’s performance as within bounds and acceptable.

Was Contessa Brewer being straight up when she asked if Sarah found being called a slut offensive?    Should MSNBC suspend Brewer and send her to sensitivity training?

The one v. reality, more on the video on which Eric rambled.  From Classic Values:

We have added at least a trillion dollars to our national debt and the accomplishments for that spending are worse than if we had done nothing. Where is the Do Nothing Congress and the Do Nothing Presidency when you need them? If only they had put the effort into raising the price of electricity while lowering the reliability of supplies. Well they are doing that. And what else are they doing? They are going to spiff up Public housing

The Obama economy is is worse shape than Obama said it would be if we did nothing, to wit not pass Porkulus.    So if Obama’s economic foreaset for doing nothing was accurate, then not only is Porkulus not fixing the economy, it making it even worse.   And these retards want to fix healthcare.

Charles Krauthammer, from the New York Post:

I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting — half the American people

Some niche market Charles!

Mrs. Pelosi’s Swamp, from Charles Neubauer, Washington Times:

When Democrats made their case during the 2006 elections about why they should control Congress, they offered up Republican lawmakers like Mark Foley and Rick Renzi as examples of the “culture of corruption” they wanted to rid from Washington.

[…]

But when the limelight faded, the controversies took an unexpected twist: Democrats, now in control, sought to block or limit prosecutors from gathering certain evidence of corruption against members of Congress on constitutional grounds, complicating the criminal cases against the two Republicans.

Of course when the rotten politicians are democrats, we can count on the silence of the media.

Murder in Gun-Free DC:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A lone gunman killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday before being wounded himself by return fire from other guards, sources confirmed to CNN.Stephen Tyrone Johns was shot and killed while working at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday.

The suspect was identified as James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist from Maryland, two law enforcement officials told CNN.

The museum identified the guard as Stephen Tyrone Johns.

Our deepest sympathy to the family of Stephen Tyrone-Johns.

About all you need to know and about I am going to say, from Clayton Cramer: 

That couldn’t have happened–DC still has very strict gun control laws!More seriously: when I took my family to DC some years ago, we went to the Holocaust Museum–and they had a very large and obvious sign at the entrance warning that concealed weapon permits from other states were not valid in DC, and that anyone found with a weapon on them (as they passed through the metal detectors) would be arrested and charged. This was the only place in DC where I saw such a sign, and I thought it was a bit odd.

 Of course, it also meant that the shooter knew that he was attacking a place where he was guaranteed that only uniformed personnel would be able to shoot back. Another triumph of gun-free zones

Say no to victim disarmament zones.   They kill.

The Mew York State democrates are having a temper tantrum and throwing a hissy fit:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – The Senate session planned by a coalition of New York State Republicans and two dissident Democrats isn’t starting on time as planned.

[…]

No one knows for sure if the power grab will hold, but Senate Democrats have locked the door to the chamber and refuse to open it for the coalition

The New York State legislature has been shut down and the democrats did it.   It beats me what claim, if any,Malcolm Smith has to Senate Majority Leadeer.   In order to be a majority leader, you first must have a majority, and in sixty-two seat body, thirty seats does not constitute a majority, except maybe by Obamatarded math.

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

This is the Sporting Goods Edition

• Letterman smear? Of a 14 year old, no less? And of course it’s OK if they’re conservative.  Joyner adds his two cents. Think the attack on Palin isn’t full-tilt-bozo? They’re even after Palin’s toenails, if you’re ready for that. How vacuous need one be?  Smacks to me of desperation on the part of the left.
• More leftie respect for women: Melissa Clouthier notes yet another example of how leftists ‘respect’ women.  Hawkins, you got a hell of a deal when you got Melissa to blog for you.
• Bye Bye, Analog TV: Only two more days! Full -power Analog TV officially goes away on Friday. Buddy Scott Fybush lists some of the activity in the Northeast. Lots of transmitters that have been on the air for decades will go silent for the last time, if they’ve not already.
• Yes, Virginia, there is a GOP:  Terry McCauliffe lost the primary to Deeds in Virginia,  which means, in my view we have a very good situation there. Every polling data I’ve seen shows Bob McDonnell, the GOP candidate, leading handily in ever poll taken this year.  McDonnell has a huge lead in cash raised, too.. by 10 to 1. 
•  The Dropping Ratings: Drudge ran headlines yesterday about how Kaite Couric’s ratings are less than perky.  Hot Air pipes up on that one.  Good, because I didn’t get the chance to attend to that one yesterday.  In fairness, all of the news outlets are dropping ratings. All except one, that is.  Guess which one?
• Billy Beck on Health care:  Billy nails it here, and in more than just health care.
  

  

  Billy Beck

  Pay attention where Klein cannot: when a government can steal everyone’s productivity in order to (in this twit’s parlance) “purchase” the entire product of a given business, it doesn’t need to “own” anything else about that business. It has already claimed everything at the root. It doesn’t have to “own” MRI machines, etc., because it owns you.The principles are the things that the socialists do not want you to identify. That’s why you will, if you look around, find endless, sterile and completely pathetic “debates” over whether fascism is socialism. And while you’re out there kicking that rusty can around, this government has its way with you.

  I submit, Billy,  that the thing is already feit accompli, given the level of regulation already in place. This just closes the lid on it. Mona Charen adds her thoughts here.  And if you think health care is the only place where the Democrats are imposing this stuff consider the Banks, and  consider the car you drive.   Are you getting the idea, yet?

• Deadly CAFE: Speaking of that I’m currently working on a piece examining the increased CAFE standards and their effect on your continued existence.  It’ll be ready in a few days, I think.
• Anon: Speaking of Beck, he says today, regarding the “Publius” nonsense:
  

  “….  There was never a “convention” that allowed anonymity irresponsibility.”

  Just so, Billy. I took part in the takedown of two Usenet idiots who were operating in the same territory “Publius” operated in for years, and given the same conditons I’ll do it again. And Dan, again, Let’s be kind, and just say I disagree… something I rarely do with you.  I point you to my comment of yesterday:

  Because of the increased amount of damage that one can do while so cloaked in anonymity, writing anonymously about someone else, as was being done by “Publius” here, requires an increased caution… even while allowing such a person to toss caution to the winds, since they are then disconnected from the direct consequences of their comments. 

• So, why are you there? The government installed GM chair, claims he knows nothing about cars. Yeah, that’s gonna work, huh?
• Forget the rest of the Stimulus: That’s what about 45% of those polled are saying. Clearly the message has gone out, and the message is, this crap ain’t working, Barry. Just how bad is it? This bad:
• As we watch UK’s Labor party falling….  Just remember, Gang, Obama’s got us headed down the same path.  Over at Forbes, Paul Johnson examines the situation in the UK:
  

  Both ministers and MPs have become careless and insensitive to the way in which they handle the taxpayers’ money.

  

  Paul Johnson with a freind

  However, during the last year the public has become aware of just how fundamentally things have changed. Newspaper investigations and the publication of MPs’ expenses, along with provisions for “second homes” (made “necessary” by the distances between their constituencies and Parliament), have told a sorry tale of fiddling, extravagance and downright fraud. There have also been instances of peers who have brazenly used their position to promote their business interests.The public is outraged, and politicians, as a class, have become unpopular, even hated. If an election were held today New Labour would be reduced to a small minority. But there’s a year to go before an election becomes mandatory, and more revelations of political corruption are expected.It’s fortunate that the far right in Britain lacks a charismatic figure capable of campaigning on an anti-Parliamentary platform. Even so, the outlook is bleak, and admirers of the British constitution and way of doing things are in despair.

  The similarity between what Johnson describes there and what’s happening stateside is remarkable., and the outcome in each case is obvious.

• Air France a terror strike after all?  Seems a reasonable question given some of the names that have been popping up there.
• New Orleans Mayor finally initiates evacuation plan:  Ray Nagin has been released by Chinese authorities. And look….The man’s got a wasteland for a city, with crime skyrocketing… and he goes to China?

The Islamic War on the West did not begin with Nine-Eleven.   Rather it dates back to at least the first attack on the World Trade Center.   The Islamic War did not end with B.J. Clinton’s folly of treating it as if it were a criminal justice problem and not acts of war.    The Islamic War will not end with the retard in chief apologizing, groveling and preaching outright to Islamic fanatics.    The war continues, both at home and overseas. from the home front, the  Associated Press:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Muslim convert charged with fatally shooting an American soldier at a military recruiting center said Tuesday that he doesn’t consider the killing a murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.

“I do feel I’m not guilty,” Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.”

Hat tip:  Ace:

At least he is honest about it. No wonder Obama and the left don’t want to talk about it. They can’t spin this as some wannabe big talker who has no connection to Islam. Democrats are doing what they always do when confronted with evil threatening the United States (well at least since JFK)…pretend it doesn’t exist.

Give this piece of shit his trial and then kill him.

Wrong.   Trials are for non-combatants.   Verify his statement, and summarily execute him as a spy. 

Jammie Wearing  Fool is linking to this story:

Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.

French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 31 May.

And asking:

Interesting. The question is if they were terror suspects how did they manage to get on board?

Hat tip and More:   Dan Collins, Protein Wisdom:

I look forward to hearing what the gate agents and airport security have to say on this matter. I’m sure I’ll be outraged if I find out that 200+ people died because someone didn’t want to be guilty of profiling.

The Islamics don’t want us to understand them.  They want us dead.    With me, the feeling is mutual.  And you?

Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, notes:

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN, the White House would be taken over by “Christianists.” And they were right! “Barack Obama invokes Jesus more than George W. Bush did.”

When you do to church on Sunday, your reverend has no need to remind you that he is a Christian.   Likewise, George W. Bush had no need to remind anybody what his faitth was.   On the other hand, Barack Husien Obama has plenty of reason to try to convince people that somehow he is a Christian, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. Washingttom Times:

This is not to say, necessarily, that Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim any more than Mr. Clinton actually is black. After his five months in office, and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, a stunning conclusion seems increasingly plausible: The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich

Then I don’t accept Gaffney’s suggestion either.   The only god Obama recognizes is Narcissus.

GM Boycott?  Eric rambled:

Well, look, he wasn’t calling for a boycott as much as saying he wouldn’t be shocked it it happened. And by the lights of the poll Glenn links, he’s right; it’s already happening. This comment from Limbaugh, though, goes directly to something about him I’ve said many times, in these spaces;  Limbaugh’s biggest talent is identifying what people are already thinking, and saying it better, and with greater logical force. People don’t jump on Limbaugh’s bandwagon, as much as he jumps on theirs. That’s not a bad thing. Indeed…. Were that more pols did the same.

Meanwhile back at InstaGlenn:

UPDATE: Reader Tim Ameigh writes that this isn’t quite what Limbaugh said: “He said he would not be surprised if people did boycott, which your link to Rasmussen bears out.” Here’s the transcript, and I think that Ameigh is right. Reader Donald Dohrn agrees: “As a avid listener to Rush from way back, who now works during his broadcast time, I get my Rush fix through the podcast. I listen to bits when i can but heard this part while mowing last night. Rush is not calling for a boycott at all

I beg to differ.    A necessary condition for a boycott of say Acme Widget, is that Acme would produce a widget which you would otherwise want to purchase.   Given that no company can serve two masters, to wit the customer and Lord God Obama, no sane person would wish to buy a car from auto company totally dedicated to serving Lord God Obama without regards any actual desires of the customer.

In other words, Rush Limbaugh, nor any mortal, will have neither the need nor ability to boycott Obama Motors.    The retard in chief will drive a stake through the heart of General Motors.   Studebaker will have a better chance of selling a car a customer would actually want to buy.

Doubling Down on Failure, Washington Times editoial:

The stimulus isn’t working, no matter what they say

The Obama administration was out in full force defending the stimulus this weekend. The mantra is that the economy is getting better but Americans need to be patient to see progress. The problem is that, so far, there hasn’t been any economic progress.

White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee promised on “Fox News Sunday”: “It’s going to take more than a few months to turn it around.” That contradicts White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers’ promise in January that the economy would start improving “within weeks” so long as the president’s $787 billion stimulus was passed.

The O-presssion is about to break ten percent unemployment and the same retards want to tinker with y0ur healthcare.