Ted Goes Off the Rall

Ted Rall, State Journal-Register

MIAMI – We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama’s inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.

No further comment.

Addendum:(Eric)

Well, heck, I’ll comment. This thing is a case study in liberal politics, this is.

It’s apparent that my original comments hold true… There’s no arguing with liberals on a logical basis, because their support for their candidates and for that matter their politics itself, is not based in logic. Thereby, no logic can defeat it.  Think about this, now;

“We expected broken promises”?

Rall KNEW Obama was lying from the outset, and yet supported him?  What does this say about the truthfulness of Rall himself? In all honesty, it’s nothing that we didn’t already know.  But it’s interesting and rare to have such matters displayed so prominently.

He also now … after all this time…  admits the sleazy operator Clinton was? And yet supported him as well? Rall Makes excuses for him not only for the eight years that Clinton was in office, but just up until recently as well?  And yet he expected Obama represented a change for the better? I’m telling you, friends, Freud woulda had a ball with this guy.

There are a few trends  that lend themselves to our deciphering this, however.

You’ll recall Rall just got canned from his op-ed cartoon job a few weeks ago. With this comment from Rall, it’s apparent why.  Someone canned his back side because they knew the way things were going with Obama, Rall would be in high dudgeon against The Chosen One before much longer. Can’t have that. Loose cannon on deck, and all that.

The Democrats are in power, and Rall’s out of a job. Ponder that for a moment, all by itself.

There’s one of two ways we can play this.

Either Ted Rall is simply an extraordinarily bitter individual, whose bitterness served the purpose of the Democrats for a while, (See “Willing Idiot” ) and now finds himself with no further purpose for his bitterness now that the Democrats he snarked for, for so long, are in power, or  else he’s simply a fool who has finally figured out how foolish he’s been.

Either way, with this complaint from him, the question becomes whether or not he’s going to have the intellectual integrity to work against the reelection of Obama, or will start making excuses for him again, come election time.

We’ll revist this, I’m sure as 2010 and 2012 come along. -E

Forget the fact that Sonia Sotomayor is both a racist and a sexist.   She is also a hack.    Sotomay0r’s so-called degree from Princeton is not worth the paper on which it is printed, quoting Stuart Taylor, Jr., National Journal:

In October 1974, Princeton allowed Sotomayor and two other students to initiate a seminar, for full credit and with the university’s blessings, on the Puerto Rican experience and its relation to contemporary America.

Full credit for a class, she taught herself.  Is this what passes for the richness of life experience?    Chalk another one up for Obama’s vetting department.

Hat tip and more, Michael Goldfarb, Weekly Standard:

I went to Princeton but somehow I never got to teach my own class, or grade my own work. One wonders how Sotomayor judged her work in that class, and whether the grade helped or hindered her efforts to graduate with honors.

Ah Mike, the white man’s burden.

Sotomayor’s self-granted degree does open up some heretofore impossible means of sucking up to the professor.

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

This is the Crossing Edition. Yes, we’ll hold you up for a few minutes, but at least you’ll have something interesting to look at.

• Temp Check: John Hawkins has one of his polls up, this time it’s the Rightosphere Temperature Check For May, 2009 An interesting read that pretty much confirms what I’ve been saying about the matters John asks about.
• Those dirty rich: Fabius Maximus has an interesting writeup today on HIS vision of Reforming America. It’s interesting, that the vision he proclaims is vastly different from than words of The Chosen One. ™ He identifies something that I’ve spoken of here before:
  

  Unfortunately, the class that has led America — and done so well during our first two centuries — appears to have lost interest in the project.  They prefer to skim the profits off the top, and hope the ship drifts along in the trade lane (and stays off the rocks). 

  Now, as true as that is, let’s examine just WHY, for a moment. After nearly a century of being told by government and later the middle class (who it seems followed the lead of government) that the rich are the enemy, being taxed and regulated to death, and playing the part of the goat for society’s troubles, it’s not hard to imagine why concern for the concerns of government, and the middle class, doesn’t rate very high on the list of priorities of our former benefactors.  FM quotes Lewis Lapham:

  ….

  

  Lewis Lapham

  Who and what is America? How is it possible to sustain the promise of democracy without the revenue to pay for all the degrees of subsidy and entitlement? If the federal bureaucracy in Washington is incompetent as well as corrupt, is it because the constitutional machinery has broken down, or because the ruling and possessing classes had decided that the practice of democratic government was both a risk and a luxury that they were no longer willing to finance?…   

   The task of restoring belief in the democratic idea — as opposed to promoting the ritual fictions of sham democracy made of Fourth of July speeches and editorials in USA Today — presupposes the collaboration of an oligarchy that sees some advantage in the enterprise.

  Now… I can think of one thing that would re-spur the interest of the rich in such matters…. Tax cuts.  You see? This whole argument about ‘Tax cuts for the rich’ is damaging us in ways I can’t even begin to count.

•  Kicking and Screaming:  Do you suppose the spectacle of the Secret Service dragging a black woman reporter away from Air Force One will help the Image of The Chosen One?(tm) And can you imagine the reaction from the left with such an incident, had, say John McCain been in office? As it is, I very much doubt you’ll hear anything more about this one.
• Corporate Spin:  Time Warner will spin off AOL, scream the headlines. Yeah, like there’s nobody that saw THAT coming. I said at the time it wouldn’t work. And remember what Ted Turner said back then? That the deal was better than sex? Well, given how it all worked out maybe we have some idea why even Hanoi Jane left that fruitcake, huh?
• Attention  O’Reilly:  Yessir, Billy Bob, I did see that ‘apology’ last night to the Hot Air folks. It doesn’t cut it. Ya know, eventually and for their sake, I hope sooner than later, Fox is going to figure out their problem. One of their biggest draws, hasn’t a bloody clue about things that most of the viewership understands as a matter of instinct. And I’m not all that convinced that O’Reilly’s domination of the time slot is all that impressive of itself, either. About anything that Fox tosses up of late is doing well in it’s time slot. Hell…. Even Jerry Rivers… otherwise known as Geraldo Rivera, one of the least popular personalities still in the business today, is cleaning up in his time slot. That’s a testimony to loyalty to the brand, not the individual. Or perhaps a lack of loyalty to the competition, more correctly. Message to Fox: This thing is not of itself crippling. In someone with less of a pattern of this kind of thing, I’d not be worried at all. But he’s going to retire shortly anyway. Take my advice:  It’s about time to consider getting someone like Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin, or yes, Laura Ingrahm in that time slot permanently, and getting the current occupant into semi-retirement, before he does something Fox can’t recover from.
• SITYS:  Yesterday I quoted Jen Rubin, and agreed that the Obama Honeymoon is over, and suggested the Democrat party’s time in power is very limited…. and that they’re heading for a bloodbath in 2010 and 2012. Seems Obama sees it that way, as well. 
• Talk about a pre-emptive strike:   From The Politico:
  

  Progressive health care reform groups demanded on Thursday that Washington’s NBC television affiliate refuse to air a 30-minute infomercial funded by a conservative group opposed to creating a public insurance plan.The Service Employees International Union sent a letter to NBC4, arguing that the station has a responsibility to pull the documentary-style commercial paid for by Conservatives for Patients’ Rights. The ad, set to run Sunday after “Meet the Press,” “will be false, deceitful, and a distortion,” the union’s attorney wrote in the letter.

  The SEIU has not seen the ad, but is drawing the conclusion from CPR’s record of running “demonstrably false” ads. The station has the duty to protect the public from misleading advertising, the letter argues.

  (Emph is mine) Well, if they’ve not seen the ad, on what basis do they claim falsehood? Or is the complaint simply that SEIU is being opposed at all? See, here’s the thing; I think they’re getting nervous, and know their plans simply cannot stand the slightest of scrutiny.

•  De PLane, Boss! De Plane!: We’ve got the airshow this weekend. I’ll see about getting some photos to post.

Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury looking into the PMA Group, a once-high flying lobbying firm that collapsed after a federal raid in November.

So says The Politico. Anyone still think this PMA bit isn’t going to play large come 2010 and 2012?

First, Doctor Krauthammer:

Heller [the Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment guarantees gun ownership for individuals] is hardly settled law. It is law in its infancy. It’s a couple years old. And if she is on the court, she might be inclined to revisit it, either overturn it or reinterpret it in a way where it’s weakened beyond measure.

 

Looking at her ruling on the other Second Amendment case, in which she joined with the majority of the second circuit in saying that it’s settled a law that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to the states, she’s relying on a case, the Presser case of 1886, which is true. It excludes the application to the states.

 

However, we have 100 years of Supreme Court rulings since which have established the so-called “incorporation doctrine,” in which all of the first Ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights, are incorporated into the state and are applied to the states.

 

So it is not only Congress that can’t curtail speech, a state can’t either.

 

So it’s extremely odd that she would reach all the way back to 1886 and say that a gun case is excluded because it is under state jurisdiction. It would imply to me that she was reaching as a way to undermine gun rights. And it would also imply that she might be inclined to overturn Heller or restrict it in the future.

This is why I was never overly happy with the apparent victory Heller provided. As I said at the time:

My own read (Now that I’ve actually had the chance to read the ruling) is that the court, in this case, was no friend to gun rights with this one. Or, individual rights, in general, for that matter. Granted, that the court did strike down DC’s ban on handguns, but in not specifying where, exactly, the border lies between constitutional and unconstitutional, what we have here is ammunition for the Gun Grabbers who will doubtless be hauling these questions through the lower courts all over again. Quite a boon to the lawyers, certainly, but not to individual freedom.

In my view, this ruling does reinforce the concept of the need of a conservative in the White House. Perhaps just as importantly, however, does it point to the need for less in the way of Senate Liberals, who after all, the White House has to get it’s Supreme Court Nominees by. this because for all the fighting and namecalling and so on that goes on during the confirmation process, those who are nominated, are nominated by Republican Presidents because they’re conservative, but more for their ability to get by the Senate. As such instead of real conservatives such as Scalia, we end up with more centrists like Arthur Kennedy, who at best slow the growth of liberalism somewhat, rather than reverse it…. and reversing it is decidedly what is needed.

Or, Sonia Sotomayor. 

The problem with Sotomayor, of course isn’t that she’s arguing from the Constitution, but rather against it, toward a pre-set goal… a policy precluding private gun ownership. What all this boils down to is who is the best at protecting us… we, ourselves, or the government.  No shock, that the left, who never sees a government power it doesn’t like, is on the leading edge of this fight.  No shock, either that Sotomayor, the farthest left nomination for the court in a generation,  is already bending decided cases to move in that direction.

It interests me that Obama supporter the Heller decision. can it be that support was based on the wiggle room provided for elimination of the individual’s rights to bear arms?

Hanson nails it, this monring, writing in Pajamas Media, from Greece:

Victor Davis Hanson

Take the economy: the liberal attack on Bush as a reckless spender who increased the debt by $2 trillion is now replaced by ‘stimulus’ groupies, who are silent about a staggering $9  trillion of Obama debt to come. Cannot the country, the media-anyone!-see that the amounts of borrowing are so gargantuan that we are talking about massive changes in the US economy and lifestyle? The size and inefficiency of the government will grow. We will have soon some sort of national sales taxes on top on state, local, and federal higher rates, the point being threefold: more recipients and distributors of entitlements mean larger liberal permanent constituents-an institutionalization of the welfare state. The debts are so large that it will require a redistribution of income through higher taxes. When a Paul Krugman writes seriously that California’s financial meltdown (9% sales, 10% income taxes) is due to too low taxation (as hundreds of thousands of overtaxed skilled professionals flee the state), then one can see how the power of ideology in the present age so easily trumps empiricism. Three, the debts will end American exceptionalism abroad, and severely curtail our options. In other words, we are seeing the much waited for multilateralism-but by financial default! What depresses is the fact that debt is now being used as a political tool-to reconstitute American culture and society, both at home and abroad.

It is recorded in our history books that when he looked down at the ship full of smiling, victorious faces… faces of his flyers, just having returned from Pearl Harbor, Japanese fleet Admiral Yamamoto was quiet, pensive, even apprehensive. He later wrote in his private diary, “I fear all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

Here’s the thing, Victor… ending American exceptionalism was always the goal of the progressives now in power. Understand this, if nothing else… world government doesn’t fly if there’s exceptionalism in the world, which holds one nation higher than the rest.  The power of unilateralism must be eliminated for a world government to gain power.

Everything Obama has done thusfar plays directly into the end game of a one world government.  Every single thing.

 I happen to think that direction intentional, because I know of no condition where someone can hit the mark so exactly, and so consistantly, without aiming for it. But even absent intent, he could hardly have moved us more exactly into the wet dreams of the socialist one worlders, than he has done.

The question, of course, is how to counter this trend. I will suggest as I have in my own peices at PJM recently that the GOP returning to it’s fundimentals is the only hope to accomplishing that reversal.. if there is still hope for it… and given the three years in front of us, that remains an open question.

The Tea Parties here in the US, and the anger I’ve written about are formidable. Even Obama has started to recognize publicly that the Democrats need to get their aganda in now, or it will never be accomplished. The sleeping giant has awoken, certainly. I wonder, though, if it’s already too late to save orselves. Alas as I say, that’s an open question.

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DQ L’OD. I think if Larry O’Donnell was a boxer instead of a pundit, he would have lost his license by now. Here yet another example of O’Donnell coming out with short end of the stick, from Hugh Hewitt:

The last question was a trick question, because either Larry would have had to admit to being the worst prepared pundit on the least-informed network, or he would have had to drag everyone else down to his level of (non) reading and analysis. No matter where he ranks on the MSNBC scale of woeful commentary bereft of fact and value, Larry’s cheerful owning up to a complete indifference to any book learning on the war is far beyond startling

Given that O’Donnell admits to be unread on the global war on terrorism, I think he should quit pretending to be an expert and he should  be booked by an self=respecting show.

BO’s diplomacy stinks.   Warner Todd Huston, Stop the ACLU has yet another snub by the not so great one:

So, let’s see. There was that whole World War Two thingie. There was Germany, Japan and Italy on one side. So, who was on the other? I think it was The United States, Russia, and some other unimportant countries… right? One might be excused to assume this is the thought process of the Obama administration as it planned the upcoming D-Day events for the president’s European tour that is in the offing because as currently announced, Team Obama left the Queen out of its D-Day memorial plans. And boy is the she torked, not that anyone can blame her.

Only off the top of my head, there were five beachheads at Normandy.    President Obama will represent two of them, Omaha and Utah.   Queen Elizabeth  is the head of state representing the nations of the other beachheads, the two British and one Canadian.   The lady is also the Queen of Canada.

No shat Sherlock.    GOP to begin using Mrs. Pelosi has a wet towel, McClatchy:

WASHINGTON – Republicans on Thursday began unleashing a barrage of television and radio ads, as well as robo-calls, aimed at discrediting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in congressional districts held by Democrats they see as vulnerable.

Mrs. Pelosi has be either very dumb or dishonest.   Maybe both.

Guard your wallets.  The democrat greed machine knows no bounds.   ‘Rats ponder a Value -Added Tax(VAT).   The of the VAT as a national sales tax on everything applicable to everybody,  Phil Kerpen, Fox Forum:

In today’s Washington Post, the White House floats a really scary trial balloon-a new national Value-Added Tax (VAT) to pay for out-of-control spending and a Washington take over of health care. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad appears to be on board. So does Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been hired by the White House budget office to help design the health care plan and whose book on health care uses a VAT to fund the new government program. Obama economic adviser Paul Volcker is also on-board the VAT-train.

 If the ‘rat impose a VAT, the Tea Parties are going to get ugly, and massive.

Choice, what Choice?    In political context, the word Choice is used as a euphemism,  for killing unborn human beings.   One clue, is that ‘rats are apathetic to choice aside from the choice to kill human babies.    The ‘rats will tell you that a thirteen year old girl has the autonomous right to kill her unborn child without regard of her parents’ feeling or even their knowledge.    Yet while a thirteen year old girl is empowered to make a life and death decision about the life of another person, neither a thirteen year old boy or his parents, are entitled to make a choice about his medical treatment, from Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D., American Thinker:

The parents of a 13 year old Minnesota boy, Daniel Hauser, who with their support refused chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, have now told Judge John Rodenberg that they will agree to the treatment. Previously, they had missed a court date and fled the state in order to avoid judicially imposed chemotherapy. Their recent reversal came after they were given a choice; agree to chemotherapy for their son or lose custody of him.

By the way, I don’t disagree with the judge’s decision.   I too would make the same decision were I the boy’s parents, or God.  However, I am neither.    Then neither is the judge.   And that is the problem.

Empathy my *ss.   Obama says that a Supreme Court justice should have empathy.   Yet few case generate more human desire to offer compassion than that of Frank Ricci, via David Paul Kuhn, Real Clear Politics:

In 2003, the New Haven fire department had several vacancies for new lieutenants and captains. Candidates for promotion had to take a written and oral test. Candidates had three months to prepare. Ricci gave up a second job to study. Because he is dyslexic, Ricci paid an acquaintance more than $1,000 to read textbooks onto audiotapes. He studied 8 to 13 hours a day. And he succeeded. Ricci’s exam ranked sixth among the 77 candidates who took the test

Sotomayor voted against Ricci.   I quess empathy does not extend to dyslexic Italian males.    Ricci earned his promotion the hard way.  He worked for it.  He deserves it.

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

This is the The “ChooChoo, Daddy!” Edition.

• The Honeymoon is officially over:  Jennifer Rubin:
  

  The jig is up.

  The stimulus is a bust. That has some serious political ramifications for Democrats who will be on the ballot in 2010.

  …

  

  Jennifer Rubin

  It is not surprising that the Republicans are pointing to the pork barrel program and decrying the plan as a flop. Minority Whip Eric Cantor (who organized the unanimous Republican opposition to the stimulus) explained, “In the 100 days since that misdirected bill was enacted, well over 1 million Americans have lost their jobs. … These are not the results America hoped for.”

  To make their point, Republicans have put out a handy chart showing the magnitude of the job losses. And they have come out with rhetorical guns blazing at the president.

  Majority Leader John Boehner was scathing in his assessment:

  What’s most remarkable about this latest stimulus report is what’s missing: funding for a skateboard park in Rhode Island, checks to the deceased in Maryland, taxpayer money for John Murtha’s “Airport For No One” in his own backyard, and other well-chronicled examples of old-fashioned government waste.  The trillion-dollar “stimulus” has fallen short of the administration’s claims, and middle-class families and small businesses are paying dearly.  It hasn’t created the jobs American families hoped for, brought the transparency to government the President promised, or moved money into communities as quickly as the administration pledged.  On every score, it has not lived up to the expectations set out for it, all while leaving our children and grandchildren to foot the bill.

   

  Oh, Hopey Changitude. Jen does a wonderful job with this one. As always. Must read.

•  Measurement beyond the pin: You’ve heard of a pinned meter? It’s an expression that makes a great deal of sense to me with the background I have, but perhaps less so to you Essentially, it’s measuring so much of whatever it’s measuring, it’s off the scale and banging on the retaining pin.  It’s what I see in trying to measure what’s going on with the government and the auto industry, and how screw up it all is. I see this morning that GM is doing their bankruptcy on June 1.  Says  John Hawkins:
  

  $70 billion in taxpayer funds down the hole. Obama choosing the company’s CEO. A government board interfering in the company’s decisions.

  

  John Hawkins

  Members of Congress complaining about day to day business. The federal government trying to fix an overly bureaucratic company. The Obama Administration forcing the car companies to build politically correct, but unprofitable cars. It all adds up to disaster.Obama’s interference in the US auto industry will probably turn out to be one of the most foolish and expensive mistakes in the history of governance, not just here in the US, but in world history.

  Mmmmppphff. Well, add the unions to the mix, and I think John understates the case on an order of scale. The whole thing smells even worse, though,  in light of what one of Reynolds’ readers sends him:
  

  A reader notes something about “car czar” Steven Rattner: “Rattner is married to Maureen White, the former National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party.” The comment: “So one of the guys advising SecTreas on this thing is married to someone who used to be one of the people in charge of fundraising for the Democratic Party. This explains so much it’s scary.” Well, it bears a close look. ..

  At least, and likely deserves far more than this. One of the questions that needs be asked: Is there a connection between that relationship and where dealerships are being closed?  But of course, given the party in power, it won’t get nearly what it deserves. As Ace says:

  The MSM will not investigate any of these claims, ever. So what is a conservative to do? If a conservatives admit that this line of inquiry seems unlikely to turn up malfeasance, the MSM uses such statements as pretexts to not bother to even check, and uses such statements against conservatives who are agitating for additional investigation — “Even conservatives think this is unlikely, so you guys are obviously crazy…”

  However that subtext works out, and absent a reversal of Obama policy on this stuff, you can stick a fork in the auto industry. We’re done. Ponder this for a moment; At what point in our history would something this large have ever been considered a mere subtext?

•  Sotomayor again: Rick Moran makes an interesting point:
  

  

  Rick Moran

  What this really boils down to is how much political courage will Republican senators demonstrate both at her confirmation hearings and on the floor of the senate?In other words, are the principles involved in this nomination fight so important that a Republican senator should be prepared to go down to defeat rather than act pragmatically and tone down their opposition and perhaps even vote to confirm?

  You’d better hope so, Rick.  Republicans have felt themselves needing to be pragmatists for so long… needlessly, and foolishly, in my view…  that the majority of them have forgotten what principles are, and so are going to find themselves ill equipped to fight for them.  There’s no question in my mind that she’ll be confirmed.  That said, however,  there is much more at stake than knocking down this nomination. The entire identity politics meme, for one thing.  As disastrous as Sotomayor will be for this country, at least we can kneecap the identity politic as the racist nonsense it is, thereby saving us this exposure in the future.

  Even Gingrich is now saying Sotomayor is a racist. Take this as an indication of how serious the situation is. A few years ago, you couldn’t get Newt to say anything negative about anyone, to save your butt. 

•  Still not off the hook:  They’re not letting up on Joe Klein on his putrid comments on Doctor Krauthammer. Good. Interestingly, even the left is having it’s say with that moron. Notice that the author is an Assistant Editor at New Republic.  Not exactly a bastion of right wing thought, that place. And no, an apology won’t cut it. Klein needs to be gone.
• Speaking of which:  I’ve said here often enough that Bill O’Rielly is a pompous boob.  We have yet another confirmation from Hot Air.   Frankly, I”ve not had a great deal of use for Allahpundit of late, either, but he’s correct here, and Ed Morressy moreso. (Note his addendum)
• Another measure of the Bipartisanship of the Democrats: Bruce notes
  

  It would be the perfect ending to Specter’s desperate attempt to hold on to his office by switching parties. TPM is reporting:

  Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) is privately telling supporters that he intends to run for Senate, TPMDC has confirmed.

  “He intends to get in the race,” says Meg Infantino, the Congressman’s sister, who works at Sestak for Congress. “In the not too distant future, he will sit down with his wife and daughter to make the final decision.”

  The move would constitute a primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), who intends to run for re-election in 2010, after having switched parties earlier this year.

  Sestak is a retired Navy Admiral in a time when that’s a very good thing to be, especially if your primary opponent is Arlen Specter. I have no idea how a state wide race would shape up for the two sides, but in a Democratic primary I can’t help but believe Sestak would trounce Specter. And deservedly so.

  Agreement.  But this goes a little deeper into the minds of the Democrats, though.

  I would suggest that the treatment of Specter by the Democrats speaks as loudly as the treatment of Lieberman by the Democrats, to the question of what they really think of bipartisanship.  Think about this the next time you hear Democrats talking about how Republicans need to be more bipartisan. Seems the Democrats know the value of going to their base, after all.

  Now… do the Republicans, I wonder?.

• Green: The New Red… Matt Drudge had  a headline up earlier today….GREEN QUEEN: ‘EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES MUST BE SUBJECTED TO INVENTORY’  Need any more proof that these thugs are all about absolute power, and that the ‘green’ nonsense is their path to it?
• And no religion, too…… Did you see this in SanDiego, about the preacher doing Bible study in his house, being harassed by the county? It’s all the same power grab, folks. Think, now. Every aspect of your lives must be subject to the government, religion harassed out of existence by the government… does this sound like any political philosophy you’ve heard of previously?

Matthew Yglesias  is just a tad bit confused.

This seems very confused. Being a “reverse racist” can’t be similar to being a “racist,” it needs to be the reverse of being a racist. Limbaugh clearly just thinks Sotomayor is a racist. She hates white people. For a Latina to hate white people isn’t “reverse” racism, it’s racism. Reverse racism would be if you had a white person who hates white people. It would be like racism, where you hate people of other races, but in reverse.

 At any rate, I’ve made this point a million times, but it’s fascinating to me the kind of double standard conservatives apply to these issues. You never hear Rush Limbaugh decrying everyday racism against non-whites in the United States. You never hear him recounting an anecdote about an African-American man having trouble hailing a cab or being followed by a shopkeeper

I do agree that as used the term reverse racism equates to racism.

Yet where does Rush Limbaugh say hate?   Racism is not necessarily about hatred.   Limbaugh  calls Sonia Satomayor a racist.   She is.  That does not mean that Limbaugh hates Sotomayor, or Latinos.   I am surprised that Yglesias resorted to the old canard  about racist cabbies.   It is a fact that in urban centers, young black males do have problems getting a cab, from William Scott Dwyer, Rebirth of Reason:

A study by Howard University in Washington, D.C. concluded that when similarly dressed blacks and whites tried to hail a cab, blacks were turned down seven times more frequently than whites. But in the lawsuits that arose from this study, none of the cab drivers accused of discrimination was white. All were African immigrants, native-born blacks or Middle Easterners. In Washington D.C., a reporter interviewed a dozen black cabbies, and found that nearly all of them refused to pick up young, black men at night. In exercising their right of refusal, these drivers risk a $500 fine for “discrimination” and eventually a suspended license, but said one, “I’d rather be fined than have my wife a widow”.

Black cabbies, among others, don’t hesitate to pick-up young black males because they hate them.   Rather they fear them, and not without good reason.

A racist is any person who makes an assumption based on race. Period. Full stop.  

 The ilk of David Duke are racist because they assume that whites are inherently superior to non-whites.   Like wise, Sotomayor is a racist because she assumes a superiority as a Latino that is not possible for whites.    If there were such a thing as the Knights of Kolor Klan, Sotomayor would be proud member in good standing and neither version of the KKK would be any less racist than the other.

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

This is the “smart Guy” Edition

• Burris and Blago: Apparently, we have Burris on tape offering Blago money.  Bruce at Q&O has some comments you’ll want to see. The Senate should be rejecting his credentials, since it’s clear he lied to the Illinois House impeachment committee. I won’t hold my breath, though.
• Caption this: 2nd place in OTB’s caption Contest, this time.
• Attention Mickey Kaus:  Look, man, the only person who can damage Anderson Cooper is Anderson Cooper…. and the weapon of choice? The mouth of Anderson Cooper.  He does seem to be doing a fair job of managing it.
• More on Sotomayor: Ya know, I’ve been watching this bit with Sotomayor with interest. One of the memes that keeps popping up is the fact that she’s Hispanic, as if this is something we’re supposed to seriously think an advantage. Where was all this talk about Hispanics on the bench when the Bush administration was appointing Hispanics left, right and backwards? I guess they’re only concerned about this identity politics thing they’re pushing if the subject at hand is Hispanic and an activist liberal.  Back on September the 21st, Cox news Service ran the following:
  

  Latino advocacy groups are pleased; DNC stays mum By KEN HERMAN
  Cox News Service

  WASHINGTON — President Bush has had more Hispanics confirmed for federal judgeships than any president in U.S. history, a record that earns him praise from Hispanic organizations but is downplayed by the Democratic National Committee.

  Of the 282 Bush judicial appointees confirmed by the Senate, 27 — almost 10 percent — have been Hispanics. President Clinton held the previous record, having appointed 23 Hispanics (just over 6 percent of his 367 appointees) who won confirmation.

  With about 16 months remaining in his term, Bush now has appointed more than one-fourth of the 95 Hispanics confirmed for the federal bench. The first Hispanic federal judge was Reynaldo Garza of Brownsville, who was appointed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy.

  Chronologically, the record-breaker for Bush came in a jurisdiction in which it is difficult to appoint a non-Hispanic. Gustavo A. Gelpi Jr. became the 24th Bush-appointed Hispanic federal judge when the Senate confirmed him in July 2006 for a Puerto Rico bench.

  Now, as the article goes on to point out the DNC has little good to say about this. Apparently the idea of advancing Hispanics in our society isn’t of interest to the DNC if they wander outside the fold of liberalism. Limbaugh pointed this up yesterday:

  

  Rush Limbaugh

  George Bush nominated a bunch of Hispanic judges. He had an attorney general who was Hispanic, and the left went out and destroyed both of them. The way to get Hispanic votes is with conservative founding principle values repeated unalterably in a campaign. This identity politics approach that the moderates in the Republican Party want to make is not gonna work. It’s already been demonstrated that it doesn’t work with McCain.

  …

  Ask Clarence Thomas. Ask Ken Blackwell in Ohio. Ask Thomas Sowell. Ask any number of black conservatives if they are treated at all like liberal minorities are, and they’re not. So the idea that we can go out there and support Sotomayor and somehow this is going to be remembered in about two or four years, “Oh, yeah, the Republicans supported her.” If our number one Hispanic supporter, John McCain — author of amnesty for illegals, running against his own party on the issue — was not able to get the Hispanic vote, then please explain to me how supporting Sotomayor is going to accomplish it. This is what’s wrong with our party. We accept the premises of the left and then we very defensively and cowardly proceed on the basis of those premises, that we’re somehow mean-spirited, extreme, wacko, racist, sexist pigs, and we’re not.

  Precisely so… and let’s recall that Limbaugh already warned us about all this back in 1998.  Oh… and don’t let them tell you how qualified she is for the position. There’s a major argument about that….  60% of her rulings that have come before the USSC have been overturned. I’ll have more to say about all of this, I’m sure, as time goes on. Also, drop the idea that she was a daughter of immigrants. Check me on this, but the last I knew, Puerto Rico is a US holding and therefore Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Hmmm?

•  I’ve said it before…The New York Times this morning, suggests that the federal government will own upwards of 70% of GM. If that’s true, a life- long GM guy…me… will have bought his last GM vehicle. I doubt I’m alone. I’ve stuck with them, and to a lesser extent, Ford, as a matter of principle. That same principle will in future, cause me to look elsewhere, including the used lot for vehicles that will serve my purposes. Including crashworthyness, and being able to haul my family in comfort and safety, and hauling my 5000lb camper. Absent those qualities, I’ll simply drive the wheels off what I have. No reason it won’t go 20 years, at need. Obama isn’t making any friends, here.
• Sport Hybrid? Reynolds: 
  

  TEST-DRIVING THE Lexus 250h hybrid. “The interior of the HS is techy, cool and far more inviting and driver-oriented than, say, the Prius.” .

  Well, I’ve always said the Prius is the perfect car for people who don’t like to drive and want that dislike reinforced. So, being more inviting than the Prius isn’t all that hard to do.

• Soul? No:  And is it just me, or is there something about the ad campaigns for the Kia Soul that turn you off?  I mean, comon… Hamsters? Or is it Gerbils? I can never keep that straight. And by the reports, Gerbil power is what you have, too. the thing won’t get out of it’s own way on a prayer.   So, let’s see… I’m paying close on 20 kilobucks for an underpowered box that still only gets 30mpg on the open road, when the wind’s right?  Plus I’ll have my knees in my nostrils, and no storage space AND no towcap? No, thanks.  Keep in mind, folks, even this weak kneed attempt doesn’t meet with Obama’s expectations. Are you reading me, here?
• The Numbers are in: Rasmussen Reports is saying:
  

  Forty-nine percent (49%) of voters nationwide now disagree with President Barack Obama’s decision to close the prison camp for suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, conducted after the President’s speech on Guantanamo last week, shows that 38% agree with his decision.Just 25% share the President’s view that the Guantanamo camp weakened national security. Fifty-one percent (51%) disagree with that perspective.

  And, by a 57% to 28% margin, voters oppose moving any of the suspected terrorists to prisons in the United States. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party strongly oppose transfers to U.S. prisons. Democrats are evenly divided.

  We knew all this of course having mentioned it here previously. Nice to have it confirmed, though.  But think, now; Consider the reaction of Harry Reid to these issues of late. Think he didn’t feel the ground shaking? Think this wasn’t what changed his mind for him, forcing him to oppose The Chosen One? I’m telling you, folks, these people can be bent to our will. This path to that is keeping up the pressure.

• Huck for Rubio: I see Mike Huckabee has endorsed Rubio down in Florida… not Crist.  I wonder who else we’ll see on that bandwagon before this is over.
• WordPress 2.8:  I note preparations for WordPress v2.8 to be released. Bitsblog will likely be on it before July… that seems the way of it. This is a fairly major change from earlier versions but I doubt you’ll notice them. Most of it is backend stuff.

Sonia Sotomayor, is a racist and bigot, via Stuart Taylor, Jr, National Journal:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life”

Sotomayor echos what David Duke might say:

“I would hope that a wise white male  with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a Latino womaan who hasn’t lived that life”

If Duke were so stupid as to  utter such a statement, it would take all if what  three microseconds for sites like Stink Progress, to denounce Duke, for the racist that he is.   I note that Duke would have troible getting elected dog catcher.  The fact that my hypothetical Duke statement only reverses the sex and racial descriptioned used by Sotomayor, does make  it any more or less offensive than Sotomayor, real statement.

The Great One, Rush Limbaugh called Sotomayor a ‘reverse racist,”   I disagree.  Racism on a one way street.

Mike Huckabee, of whom I have little use, does at least steps up to the plate, via Ben Smith, Politico:

The appointment of Maria[sic]  Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama’s campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric. Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the “Extreme Court” that could mark a major shift. The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the “feelings” of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice.-

Recently Colin Powell has been making noises about his beefs with his perception of  republican party leadership.    Well Huckabee has weighed in,    Can Powell boldly go where no RINO has gone before?   I freeping dowbt it, but prove me wrong  General.

Addendum: (update and bump)

What it is when liberals are willing to attack a mediorce nominee, but republicans are splineless. The liberal Johnathan Turley does republicans are afraid to do, tell the truth about Sotomayor, video:

This is fight we can win, but we have to fight it first.

Last January the 22nd, I posted a piece on Pajamas Media that suggested:

For all the vitriol that has been coming from the left, and specifically out of President Obama’s mouth during the campaign, there’s a difference in tone coming out of the Obama camp over the last several weeks. There has been an abandonment of the hot rhetoric of the leftist in favor of a liberal forced to face the reality of the world around him (i.e., adopting existing White House policy). The change in tone is recognition that the rhetoric that the American public was offered during the election was simply not based on reality.

As President Obama and his people are briefed on what has been happening in the world these last eight years, the insider’s view has given them a completely new perspective on what to do about the situation, resulting in completely different actions as compared to the ones they were telling everyone they would take once they were given the power.

Today, the evidence is in, and my call of last January has proven out, and in today’s PJM piece, I list some of the indications and the future ramifications of all of this.

 I’ve had much in the way of complaint over the last eight years about President Bush, but I’ve always been convinced he was on the right path as regards the war on terror. For all his bluster on the topic, it looks like Barrack Obama is convinced of that now, too.

Oh crap, elections really do matter

Lori Byrd, Wizbang.

This no so much a snark, as it is a snarkfest.   Feast on it.

The Retard in Chief recently gave a speech at the formerly Catholic universiity, Notre Dame, where he ponticated on the need to find a “middle ground” on abourtion.   To be blunt, the Obama adminstration seeks no middle ground, via Wendy Wright, Human Events (no link):

Melody testily interrupted to state that she had to correct me. “It is not our goal to reduce the number of abortions.”

If we call supporters of abortion baby killers, they get all  upset. Theefore Obama’s supposed middle ground is for us not to call him and his ilk baby killers.    In return for not calling Obana’s ilk Baby Killers, they propose to keep killing  babies.    That a worse deal than Crysler’s bond holders got.  No deal O.