BitsBlog Makes the List… But…

Virology has given BitsBlog the honor of listing us as one of the top ten political blogs.

I’ve brought to the attention of the webmasters, however, that BitsBlog is a multi-author blog, wich would seem to create a problem, given they’re saying:

Here at Viralogy, we focus on the individual and not the company.  Therefore, all company political blogs were automatically out, and I also decided to exclude any group blogs or those with multiple writer and editors.

Thanks, but under that rule, then, it seems BitsBlog doesn’t qualify.

Addendum:  (David L)

I read the list and color me confused.   I mean, Michelle meats all the criteria, but she is excluded because she is too good.    Well I suppose  by that criteria, the National Basketball Association would not name LaBaron James an all-star because he is too good.

Like I said, a list is no better than the criteria used to compile it.

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a/k/a Speaker Tablecloth, does her imitation of  Emily Latilla.    First Speaker Tablecloth accuses the Central Intelligence Agency of  “Lying to the Congress of the United States”, Willliam A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection:

Nancy Pelosi is holding a press conference in which she has acknowledged being briefed by the CIA about waterboarding in 2002, but accuses the CIA of lying to Congress about the use of the technique and whether the techniques were legal. Pelosi also acknowledged, when pressed by questions, that she was told in 2003 by an assistant, that the CIA was using waterboarding. This puts Pelosi and Democrats in Congress who support her on a collision course with the intelligence community.

The CIA lied to Congress of the United States

WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democrats on Thursday defeated a Republican push to investigate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claims that the CIA misled her in 2002 about whether waterboarding had been used against terrorism suspects.
The House voted 252-172 to block the measure that would have created a bipartisan congressional panel. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, sponsored the resolution.

“This is partisan politics and an attempt by the Republicans to distract from the real issue of creating jobs and making progress on health care, energy and education,” said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami.

Oh never mind. 

Hat tip: Drew M,  Ace of Spades Hq.

The ‘rats used to feign indignation over alleged lies so much better.  You know, Bush lied, people died,  Sixteen words.    Now it just doesn’t seem to matter.

The speech that President Barack Obama did not want the nation to hear, video:

Hat tip: Sweetness & Light

Transcript (as prepared), via William Kristol, Weekly Standard:

Thank you all very much, and Arthur, thank you for that introduction. It’s good to be back at AEI, where we have many friends. Lynne is one of your longtime scholars, and I’m looking forward to spending more time here myself as a returning trustee. What happened was, they were looking for a new member of the board of trustees, and they asked me to head up the search committee.

(continue)

More Kristol,  Weekly Standard:

Obama’s is the speech of a young senator who was once a part-time law professor–platitudinous and preachy, vague and pseudo-thoughtful in an abstract kind of way.

[…]

Cheney’s is the speech of a grownup.

Don Surber:

Dick Cheney used facts. President Obama wrapped himself in the flag. Who won?
That was my take on their speeches today. Cheney went to the American Enterprise Institute to speak at its request. Obama felt t necessary to pre-empt Cheney

 Mike Allen, Politico:

President Barack Obama declared defiantly Thursday that the U.S. “went off course” in fighting terrorism over the past eight years, and said his policies will “better protect” the country against al Qaeda.

The one may be defiant, but alas he also ignorant to the bone.   The United States was attacked by Islamic militants in 1993, the first attack on on the World Trade Center.   In response,  President B.J. Clinton acted as if terrorism was a criminal justice problem, only to dealt with after the fact.   Clinton’s policy resulted in string of terrorist attacks including the attack on the USS Cole, the World Trade Center (yet again), and the Pentagon.

The one may think it the moral high road to bury your own citizens rather then offend the sensibilities of radicial militants and those who support them.   Few American would agree.   Do you?

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

This is the “Still in the truck stop” edition

•  Minority Broadcasters, again: Limbaugh touched on this yesterday:  I lived through the ‘minority broadcasters’ nonsense in the 70’s, and saw the crap being shoveled first hand.  So I was shocked not at all to see this pop up again. Based on my previous experience, I’ll tell you Limbaugh’s comments are dead on, here.  Irony abounds;
  

  “In addition to the credit crisis, also weighing heavily on minority broadcasters is a significant decline in advertising revenues, particularly the loss of automobile advertising.” Ha! Make me laugh! It is Obama who has slashed the advertising budgets of the auto companies! Obama, the first black president, has cut the Chrysler ad budget in half; he’s going to do the same thing to General Motors.

  

  Rush Limbaugh

   That hurts the media, and particularly the minority-owned media, according to this story. So Obama will get an opportunity to buy into the broadcasting business. This is shades of Hugo Chavez. But the unintended consequences of these people taking over the automobile companies — they haven’t stopped to think. Shutting down all of these dealerships? Did they know how important to communities dealerships are, these owners, what they do, they donate to charity, they prop up the local symphony, they do a lot of things, and they’re being shut down. The lack of revenue in local communities that will result from these dealerships being shut down is going to be devastating. It’s going to mean more people out of work, not just at the dealership. It’s going to mean less charitable operating revenue in these communities, all so that Obama can get you driving a lawn mower with a couple of seats on it.

  Really. Tell me again how this is all going to help is recover economically.

• Great article from John Hawkins, today:
  

  

  John Hawkins

  If candidates who believe in small government, fiscal responsibility, a strong military, patriotism, freedom, and traditional values can no longer win elections in the United States, then we’re finished as a great nation.

  A choice between modern liberalism and the “Democrat-lite” philosophy of people like Arlen Specter, Charlie Crist, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is like a choice between cutting your throat with a chainsaw or a rusty saw: one may be a little faster than the other, but both will eventually kill you dead as a doornail. This is something the average conservative understands, but the GOP establishment does not.

  Exactly the argument I’ve been making, since Nixon, when the party was beholding to what we used to call “Rockefeller Republicans”.   In discussing this online with a chap who lives out by the Reagan Library last night, he wondered if the Republican party was the party of Reagan, anymore.   I responded that in reality, it never was.

  The fact is for all the accolades heaped on Reagan, and for all the invocations of his name from people like Specter (Well, at least until a few weeks ago) what Hawkins calls the ‘old bulls of the party’ never really did like him.  He was a means to an end, that end being power. They looked down their noses at Reagan, and the grassroots who supported him. They never quite understood how Reagan and his values managed to capture so much of the American Spirit. What they didn’t understand was that he’d not captured it, he reflected it, and better than they.  For all that can be said of Newt Gingrich, he at least was smart enough and perceptive enough to catch a glimpse of what all that was about and focus it through the lens of the Contract With America… which was a document, again, that reflected American values in the way that the Republican establishment never really has since then.

  That grassroots power, that American spirit that Reagan so successfully reflected, is not only valid, but vital, if we are to pull our futures out of the sausage grinder that is the Democrat party.   If the GOP leadership can’t understand that, they’re part of the problem, instead of the solution… And as demonstrated in the elected attempt of John McCain, the electorate knows just what to do about that.

• Shout to Karl Rove:   Yeah, he’s adopting Bush’s terrorism policy. We know. And I told you he would last January. 
• The HDI is Bunk: James Joyner, freshly back form his vacation yesterday posts this morning some comments about the so-called “Human development Index”. Let’s just say he finds it wanting, essentially doesn’t think it makes sense for the states context:
  

  

  James Joyner

  This is yet another instance of a trend that I’ve long found aggravating: the ordinal ranking of relatively similar bodies to create the illusion of substantial disparity.  We usually see it in the form of international comparisons, which have the United States ranked 35th on some attribute despite being essentially the same as the country ranked 1st.  Here, we’re doing the same with states. It’s junk social science.

  Have a look at the map of the thing:

  

  Look at the states that are claimed as being ‘more developed’, again, and consider that the darker states on the map are with the possible exception of Alaska, liberal strongholds, if not Democrat strongholds. Places like Louisiana, for example are certainly Democrat strongholds, but I would argue are never considered, even by liberals, to be among the liberal elite.

  Notice also, that the map (With again, the exception of Alaska) shows the states with the biggest cities as ‘developed’. right online with what the UN has been pushing for for decades… they want the populations in the cities (It’s currently being sold as being green)…

  If as James suggests, and I agree, the report makes no sense in it’s stated context, might a logical explanation of the release of this report be that someone’s trying to make a connection between the liberal elite, their Utopian wet dreams, and human development?

  “You’re a (shudder) conservative? You’re from flyover country? Why, you backward putz, you…”

• Relax, Billy:  Look, man in reading your thing this morning, my instinct is to just say, ya do what you can. Saying something each day isn’t a panacea, either…. I’ve been putting several posts a day up without fail for years, and I’m not convinced it’s always made a difference in my following.  And in any event, let  I remind you of your own words.
  

  

  Billy Beck

  I will not post daily simply in order to meet others’ expectations. If I don’t have anything to say, then I won’t bother. I completely expect that this will happen periodically, if not frequently. I am never amazed at the fact of being struck speechless by bloody nonsense, which is a going concern, these days.

   (nod)   It’s true.  There’s a lot of nonsense out there, and sometimes one must simply sit back and watch in amaze. My own response is to talk about it even at the risk of repetition, whereas you tend to avoid repeating yourself a bit more than I, I think. Which is the better method? I’m not sure I know, and I’m quite sure you don’t know the answer any better than I.   But yours is yours, and uniquely so, and is part of why you have the following you do… which I think to be larger, by the way, than your counters suggest. Most of us only have the ripples on the surface, to judge the amount of influence we’re having, one way or the other.  We can never know, I think, the degree of influence we have on others in our lives, (folks who have their minds changed for them seldom trumpet that fact) and perhaps it’s just as well. If we knew all that we do, all that we influence, we’d react to that knowledge, and change our behavior in the process…. and not always for the better. Indeed, usually not, if we may judge the matter by some in the media, and some blogs, for that matter.

  We’re currently getting around 3k/mo here. It’s been as high a 10k month before the election.  We’ve gotten lots of great feedback, and links from a lot of the majors, and several newspapers, over the years. I’ve got a perch over at Pajamas Media, which I consider a real cap feather, I’m seen regularly with guest slots at several other blogs (American Thinker, Conservative Reader, and so on)  and I’m content with the progress we’re making.

  As for the Obama business and it needing a full treatment, let me put it to you this way; Obama has if nothing else flooded that field. It’s so vast, so many things are blowing up at once on this guy’s watch, that nobody no single individual, or even a group, can ever hope to give it the treatment it deserves. I’m content to be a part of the treatment; to be one voice among many raised against the cabal. And I for one am glad you’re around to add your part.

• Time out for this reminder:  Terrorism is still an issue.
• Cheney’s approval rising, while Obama’s falls: I’ve said for years the best campaign advertisement for electing Republicans, is Democrats in power.  Case in point.  Rasmussen reports that only 38% of the country think we’re moving in the right direction.  Do you understand the electoral meat grinder Democrats are headed for at this pace?
•  Are they doing this on purpose?:  Bruce McQuain posts a list of points about cap and Trade (really cap and tax) from The Heritage Foundation:
  

   

  1. Cap and Trade Is a Massive Energy Tax2. It Will Not Make a Substantive Impact on the Environment

  3. It Will Kill Jobs

  4. It Will Cause Electricity Bills and Gas Prices to Sharply Increase

  5. It Will Outsource Manufacturing Jobs and Hurt Free Trade

  6. It Will Make You Choose Between Energy, Groceries, Clothing, and Haircuts

  7. It Will Be Highly Susceptible to Fraud and Corruption

  8. It Will Hurt Senior Citizens, the Poor, and the Unemployed the Worst

  9. It Will Cost American Families Over $3,000 a Year

  10. President Obama Admitted “Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket” Under a Cap-and-Trade Program (January 2008)

  So, what can you expect when they realize that number 8 makes it a very regressive tax?

  That’s right, a subsidy will somehow become part of the arrangement. And who pays subsidies? What those who they arbitrarily determine can “afford” them.

  Personally, I think it clear they’ve always known this. All of it. And yet they’re going for it anyway. It’s been noted by people smarter than I, that the policies the Democrat party espouses always end up making things worse economically in spite of their claims of making it all better. there is no way the democrats could get it so precisely wrong each time they try without some degree of intent about it.  At some point, we must start making the assumption that the end effect of these policies are the actually intended ones… that these people actually WANT to cripple America, and start treating them accordingly.

• Holiday:  I’ll be in town over the holiday weekend, but my schedule won’t support my being able to do the job that needs to be done to put up a Ramble as well as the other work I have planned this weekend. So, Nightly Ramble will be off on Friday and Monday, to return Tuesday, the 26th.

Alina Percea was born a female, may, or may not, have become a young lady.   Alas she will die a whore, Dehorah Arthurs, Mail(UK)

A teenager who sold her virginity online for £8,800 has revealed the details of her tryst with the winning bidder.

Alina Percea, 18, auctioned her virginity on a website so that she could afford to pay for her computing degree.

 I’ve seen uglier.

Addendum:

And I’ve seen richer.   Germany may make if official, from Tax Prof Blog:

Tax authorities in Germany are poised to claim 50% of the money that a teenage student earned for ‘auctioning’ her virginity because they claim it was “tantamount to prostitution.”

Romanian-born Alina Percea, who is a student in Germany, was paid £8,800 [$13,827] in cash for a weekend of sex with the Italian businessman after she auctioned her virginity online. But tax officials in Berlin regard the 18-year-old’s act as “nothing more than prostitution.” Prostitution is legal in Germany — but it is heavily taxed. …

Haggling over the price can not change the nature of the act, Alina.

Jee Klien is quoted by Ben Smith, Politcio, trying to cut Charles Krauthammer down:

“He became ground zero among the neo-cons, but he’s vastly smarter than most of them,” said Time’s Joe Klein, an admirer and critic who praised Krauthammer’s “writing skills and polemical skills” as “so far above almost anybody writing columns today.”

“There’s something tragic about him, too,” Klein said, referring to Krauthammer’s confinement to a wheelchair, the result of a diving accident during his first year of medical school. “His work would have a lot more nuance if he were able to see the situations he’s writing about.”

If Krauthammer chooses to responed, I expecct the doctor will be short, to the point, and  devastating.  If he so chooses.

I owe inspiration to John Podhoretz.   I will not attempt to match words with the likes of Podhoretz.  However my mind is drawn to one movie  scene from the 1951 Cary Grant movie, People Will Talk, delivered by a characater of the name  Shunderson:

Professor Elwell, you’re a little man. It’s not that you’re short. You’re…little, in the mind and in the heart. Tonight, you tried to make a man little whose boots you couldn’t touch if you stood on tiptoe on top of the highest mountain in the world. And as it turned out…you’re even littler than you were before.

Wish I could find a Youtube of the scene.  Alas.

This is rich.    Colin Powell endorses a democrat, Barack Obama, for president and upset because he had been shown the, or told where, the door is, David Beard, Boston:

“Rush Limbaugh says, ‘Get out of the Republican Party.’ Dick Cheney says, ‘He’s already out.’ I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there’s another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again,” Powell told the crowd.

Leave it to an enlisted man to have to explain life to an officer.   How tiring.   General, the republican didn’t kick you out of the party.   You left.   You endorsed one Barack Obams who has run up more deficit that all other presidents in our nation’s history.   The man you endorsed has the intent to convert our once proud nation into the United States of Europe.   Obama is a moron, and you endorsed him.   Had you not endorse Obama, he might well not be president.

In short General you f***ked up.   Now having left the republican party entirely of your own choosing, you are now sniveling and wanting to be let back in.   So before you come back in, one explain why you abandoned your party in the first place.    Two, tell why we should trust you this time.   It is not like loyalty is exactly your long suit general, sir.

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

This is the “Yet Another Truck Stop” Edition

That’s two Truck Stops in as many weeks, I know. I’m not sure what it is about old truck stops I find so appealing.  I certainly like to travel, so that’s certainly part of it.  Just as certainly, there’s always been a part of me that loves those trucks, and the idea of 400 miles between bathrooms. I could use pics of the newer truck stop chains to take off on, I suppose. TSA, Flying J, Husky, and so on… but there’s something special about the small independent operators. A different, perhaps friendlier flavor to them.  And, frankly, they’re a piece of Americana that’s slipping away from us.

• California Tumbles into the Sea:  (Yes, Steely Dan) I notice Megan McCardle today:
  

  California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed. And not a little garden hose. More like this. Their outflow is bigger than their inflow. You can blame Republicans who won’t pass a budget, or Democrats who spend every single cent of tax money that comes in during the booms, borrow some more, and then act all surprised when revenues, in a totally unprecedented, inexplicable, and unforeseaable chain of events, fall during a recession.

  

  Megan McCardle

  You can blame the initiative process, and the uneducated voters who try to vote themselves rich by picking their own pockets. Whoever is to blame, the state was bound to go broke one day, and hey, today’s that day!There is a surprisingly sizeable blogger contingent arguing that we have to bail them out because however regrettable the events that lead here, we now have no choice. But actually, we do have a choice: we could let them go bankrupt. And we probably should.

  Correct, but not far enough. The word you’re looking for Megan, isn’t “probably”, it’s “decidedly”. The very reason that they’re in the huge trouble they’re in is the bad behavior that got them where they are now, was reinforced, by way of federal bailouts, for decades. When we avoid the pain of the hard lessons,  we reinforce the behavior. 

  Let’s consider the situation we’d have seen absent federal aid all those years. Why, California would have had to live within it’s means. meaning, that they’d either have to raise taxes at the state level, and deal with the consequences of that, or they’d have to cut spending. More likely, given the vote held yesterday, the latter.  With prejudice, yet. As it is, with the federal aid, not only are the rest of us paying to bail them out, but we get to watch their government making sure everyone’s driving a Prius.

  Want an example of what happens when we try to wean people off the federal government? New Orleans. You do know they’re still living in trailers down there and bitching up a blue streak about not being ‘provided for’, don’t you? If the states, the localities, or (gasp!) the individuals actually took charge of the situation, the thing would have been dealt with and would be a non issue. It’s easier, though to be dependent.

  But you know what? We’re going to bail California out, thus reinforcing the dependency. Why?  Well first off, you can forget getting any cuts out of the legislature, which is basically tied in a Mexican standoff, with prop 13 laws demanding a super-majority for tax increases, and yet Democrats holding just under that super majority, we’re going to see nothing until the next election cycle, when presumably, we’ll see some degree of turnover in the state.  They won’t survive like this, absent some federal money.  And Obama will do it. Simply put, California’s a far left state, mostly, and one the Democrats in Washington need to survive 2010 and 2012. As such, making such predictions is a no-brainier. And hang the consequences, such as other states demanding similar treatment, as Megan points out in another post, today:

  I don’t see how the government can make a credible commitment not to bail out various localities who overspend, if it’s already done so. And if that’s the case, there’s no way to avoid the moral hazard, so we might as well go ahead and offer the explicit guarantee in exchange for some sort of say in how the money is procured and spent.

  The result of course being that power is yet further herded under the federal government.

• Bye bye, Tom:  I think you may know the name of Tom Golisano. He owns the Buffalo Sabres, for one thing, and also owns Paychex. Ran for Governor twice.  Lives in Rochester. Or, did, anyway.  He’s moving to Florida. Why? Taxes.
  

  

  Tom Golisano

  Last week I spent 90 minutes doing a couple of simple things — registering to vote, changing my driver’s license, filling out a domicile certificate and signing a homestead certificate — in Florida. Combined with spending 184 days a year outside New York, these simple procedures will save me over $5 million in New York taxes annually.By moving to Florida, I can spend that $5 million on worthy causes, like better hospitals, improving education or the Clinton Global Initiative. Or maybe I’ll continue to invest it in fighting the status quo in Albany. One thing’s certain: That money won’t continue to fund Albany’s bloated bureaucracy, corrupt politicians and regular special-interest handouts.How did the state get to this point? By spending, spending and spending some more.

   The number of people moving out of high tax states like California, and yes, New York, is nothing shy of staggering. And yet the states are not getting the message. I wonder, though; Given the speed with which everythings going over to Washington’s control, one wonders if the escape is anything more than short term.

• Consequences:   On the other hand there’s pushback. That California vote was a mild surprise. Consider it; Even a far-left-whack job place like California, and a crushing majority… with prop 1A going down 66/24… votes not only against tax increases but votes to retaliate against legislators on a legal basis, if they  don’t keep their spending in line. If it plays that way in the liberal paradise of California, how’s it gonna play in Peoria, come 2010 and 2012?  I wonder if the GOP is listening, here. With this vote yesterday, they’ve been shown clearly, that the  Tea Party Crowd has major legs. I’m telling you now…. The GOP has been handed the most powerful tool possible. I wonder if the current GOP leadership is smart enough to pick it up, much less wield it.
• The right of property: Boortz has a letter up I think you oughta see.
  

  On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as “new,” nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler’s insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.

  HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?

  The answer is, it can’t. But in Obama’s America, Yes, it can. 

• That’s a bad hat, Harry:  It appears Harry Reid is toast at the next election. I’ll say more on this as things develop, but for now, let e just make a comment to those who figured opposing Dingy Harry wasn’t worthwhile…. PPPPFFFHHHHTTTT!!!!!! I’m telling you, people…the Democrats individually fall when challenged.  Which is why I suggested at Pajamas Media we should take the gloves off.
  

  Harry Reid

• Has Harry Met His Gitmo?  I wonder, though, if the business with Dingy Harry coming out against funding the closing of Gitmo, and the noises he’s now making about being fiscally responsible, aren’t a reaction to the latest polling data on his re-election chances? Looks to me like Harry knows there’s not enough leftist whack-jobs in his state to send him back, and is starting to sound almost human, again. Of course the leftist press is busy now trying to tear him down.  I suspect that’s part of it, but not all. I suspect the rest of it is Obama looking for cover. It’s as I suggested last January… when faced with reality, we’re going to see Obama following Bush’s lead on terrorism.  And as I say in an upcoming Pajamas Media column, they’re just now starting to feel the consequences of their bleeding anti-Bush rhetoric.  My advice: Keep the popcorn to hand.
•  Still floating, Ted?  Someone asked me the other day if Ted Kennedy was still operational. Apparently, the answer is yes. For now.

 

Glenn Reynolds, today:

AT CNBC, SKEPTICISM ON BIG BANKS:

 

Mega institutions (financial institutions and insurance companies come to mind) that become TOO BIG TO MANAGE are likely to become TOO BIG TO FAIL.

It is impossible for top management to effectively monitor what is happening in all the nooks and crannies which have proven themselves able to bring down the largest Goliaths. And the Boards of Directors? Too friendly, too close, not independent enough, chosen as “buddies” rather than for skills needed. They have for the large part failed to perform. Chris (“I still can’t find my Countrywide mortgage documents”) Dodd’s wife serves on many boards. Her consulting company has NO clients. Just one of many many possible examples of inappropriate Board appointments.

 

I tend to agree that institutions that are too big to fail are too big to exist.

Mmmph. I’m not sure I agree, here.

While the logic is sound that there is a higher risk with larger banking institutions, this sentiment as expressed apparently makes the unwarranted assumption that the banks in question would have failed absent the overhwelming level of governmental medding in the affairs of the bank.

For example, forcing it to make loans to one group or another for political reasons, who, in their turn couldn’t pay the loans back.  There are other factors involved of course… This is a death of 1000 cuts we’re talking about here, after all… yet this is the biggest.

It is seldom indeed a bank fails on it’s own, and even more rare that an economy fails without governmental help.

Yet, we’ve seen many banks, and an entire economy fail… all of it as a direct result of trying to buy minority votes with bank loans.  So, the question, then… if the problem is the meddling in the business of the banks that causes the failures, does it stand to reason that the solution to that problem should be increasing the meddling in the banks so as to restrict their size?  Seems to me the solution being offered is a diversion from the real problem.

From John Hawkins:

It was disappointing to many Republicans to see the National Republican Senatorial Committee get involved in the Charlie Crist vs. Marco Rubio primary in Florida.

We’ve had the leadership of the Republican Party saying we need to get back to our principles and talking about how important it is to attract more young voters and Hispanic Americans. Then, we get a viable, young, conservative, Hispanic candidate running for Senate and they arrogantly try to shove him aside to make way for a better connected, moderate pol who’s more acceptable to the GOP establishment. This cuts to the core of what’s wrong with today’s Republican Party.

With that in mind, I got together with Erick Erickson of Redstate and we put together a petition that we requested some of the bigger conservative bloggers sign onto.

If you’re a blogger and you agree, post this petition and let people know about it. If you’re a talk radio host, speak up and let people know where you stand. If you’re a rank and file Republican, let the NRSC know that they’re supposed to represent all Republicans: Telephone: (202) 675-6000, E-mail: [email protected], Twitter.

What follows is the petition and the initial signatories.

Dear Senator Cornyn,

We the undersigned believe that the National Republican Senatorial Committee should be committed to serving ALL the members of the Republican Party.

Additionally, the NRSC should be focused on defeating Democrats, not Republicans. Towards that end, we believe it was completely inappropriate for the NRSC to endorse a candidate in the Florida primary race.

Therefore, we request that both you and the NRSC alter your position on the Florida Senate race, maintain neutrality, and promise to spend no money directly or indirectly in that race.

Sincerely yours,

John Hawkins
Right Wing News

Erick Erickson
Redstate

Ed Morrissey
Hot Air

Jon Henke
The Next Right

Eric Odom
American Liberty Alliance

Pamela Geller
Atlas Shrugs

R.S. McCain
The Other McCain, Right Wing News, Not One Red Cent

Dan Riehl
Riehl World View

Jeff Goldstein
Protein Wisdom

Kevin Aylward
Wizbang!

Lorie Byrd
Wizbang!

David Blount
Moonbattery, The Other McCain, Right Wing News

Melissa Clouthier
Melissa Clouthier, The Other McCain, Right Wing News

Jeff Vreeland
Tech Republican, President of VM Technologies and IT Chairman for the YRNF

Matt Lewis
Politics Daily

Ned Ryun
The Madison Project

Justin Hart

John Caldwell

Joshua Trevino
Co-founder of Redstate, founder of Treviño Strategies and Media.

Chip Hanlon
Red County

Robert Loewen
President of the Lincoln Club of Orange County

Richard Wagner
Chairman of the Lincoln Club of Orange County

I have asked to have myself added to this list.

The leftards railed against the circa five thousand soldiers were lost in Iran.   You know the chant:  Bush lied, people died.    Yet Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency standards are already killing people,  Karl, Hot Air:

As for the increased motorist deaths, which the National Academy of Sciences once estimated at 1,300 to 2,600 in 1993 alone, even a less lethal estimate of 800 excess deaths annually is roughly the number of US troops killed annually during the peak years of the Iraq war. Indeed, the estimated cumulative death toll of 46,000 in 2001 suggests that CAFE standards inflict casualties on the magnitude of Vietnam. The lapdog media, however, does not devote time to reporting the grim milestones when people die in fuel-efficient cars.

And Obama wants to kill ever more Americans motorists.     Eric, “Does Obama really think this will help?    Maybe Obama isn’t so stupid to think his Obamamobiles will help, but bet hie not so stupid as to actually ride in one, or let his family even near  one.   I say,  if the politicians want us to drive, and die in, Yugomobiles, the politicians, and their family, had better be riding in the same Yugomobiles.

Blog reax: Stacy McCain, from “My Cold Dead Fingers!“;  Michelle, “Obama’s $1,300 car tax.”

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

This is the “Road to where?” edition

• That sucks: As a social conservative, I found this piece by Dennis Praeger to be very worthwhile.
  

  Outside of politics, sports, and popular entertainment, how many living Germans, or French, or Austrians, or even Brits can you name?  Even well-informed people who love art and literature and who follow developments in science and medicine would be hard pressed to come up with many, more often any, names. In terms of greatness in literature, art, music, the sciences, philosophy, and medical breakthroughs, Europe has virtually fallen off the radar screen.
  …
  What has happened is that Europe, with a few exceptions, has lost its creativity, intellectual excitement, industrial innovation, and risk taking. Europe’s creative energy has been sapped. There are many lovely Europeans; but there aren’t many creative, dynamic, or entrepreneurial ones.

  The issues that preoccupy most Europeans are overwhelmingly material ones: How many hours per week will I have to work? How much annual vacation time will I have? How many social benefits can I preserve (or increase)? How can my country avoid fighting against anyone or for anyone?

  Why has this happened?

  There are two reasons: secularism and socialism (aka the welfare state).

  Either one alone sucks much of the life out of society. Together they are likely to be lethal.

  Those clips oughta be enough to get you started. Dennis is quite correct, here. As he says, the bigger the state, the smaller the people. And guess which direction the current president is pushing us, folks? To be more like the Europeans.

• Does Obama really think this will help? Speaking of pushing us in the direction of small, and sucking the creativity away, what else can be said of Obama’s latest monster for the Auto industry?
  

  In a ceremony today at the White House, Obama will establish the first national limits on car exhaust and dramatically raise fuel efficiency standards. The new exhaust target – an average 35.5mpg by 2016 – will force US manufacturers to produce cars and trucks that are nearly 40% more efficient.

  

  Obama Cars... the answer to the high cost of health care. You don't need much health care when you're dead.

  What they will not tell you of course, is that (Assuming such figures are even possible… and that’s a large question, yet… )  there’s only one way to attain this goal. We’re all going to be driving thimbles that barely have enough power to get out of their own way, much less have the ability to haul your family, the dog and all the stuff,  or for towing the boat to the water, or the camper to the mountains. And certainly, the vehicles mandated here will not withstand any kind of crash.  Which, like the one on the right, here, will solve a lot of problems in maintaining a lower cost health care system.  The higher degree of safety in a crash situation, particularly with larger vehicles like trucks, and stationary objects like trees is one major reason I stuck with American vehicles all this time… After watching two friends die in one car accidents in a Ford Fiesta and a Prius, respectively,  I decided I was never going to drive such a vehicle.  But those are what’s now being mandated by the socialist in the White House.  Sorry, but Pickups and SUV, and larger American cars  simply stand up better than the thimbles the left would have us all driving given the power.

  Well, now of course, they’ve got the power. They’ve got control, and they’ve taken control of the car companies as well. As yet, however, they can’t force me to buy something, though I don’t doubt that’s coming.  They can by means of pollution standards, force my vehicle off the road eventually.  Now do you begin to understand why this ‘global warming’ nonsense has been so important the last decade or so? It gives them control. Witness ‘cap and trade’ as a prime example.

  Let’s understand each other clearly, here; If we want to buy vehicles from American companies, we have to buy cars designed by the government from companies owned by the Unions?  I’m telling you, folks… I’ve never owned a foreign car in my life. I’ve restricted my buying to domestic made vehicles, as a matter of principle. I have to tell you, though, that it’s getting nigh on impossible to justify that, anymore, given the new set of governmentally imposed conditions we as Americans face.  I’m now seriously re-examining that stand. I always have, of course but until recently such choices and such re-examinations have been easy. Now, not so much.

  I’ve already determined that I’m going to simply drive the wheels off the SUV I now own, since my obtaining a vehicle that better meets my needs as well as this one does off someone’s car lot is a very small chance indeed.  That’s particularly true now. I now wonder if when this thing does eventually need replacing, there will be any vehicle available at all that can handle my 5000lb camper. If these new regs stick, I may never be able to buy another American vehicle.

  Now, all this ignores the increased costs Obama’s move will place on cars, something the American car companies and a number of foriegn ones won’t be able to well withstand just now.  Tell me again, how this is going to help the US automakers back up to sustainability, Barry.  Of course now,  just think; How would it be if American car companies were able to make vehicles people actually wanted to buy? We’re about to see the effect of the opposite happening. I’ll tell you this… this socialist dream of a president, will likely be the best object lesson as to why socialism/progressivism doesn’t work, for the next several generations. Assuming we survive so long, as a country. And frankly, I’ve begun to wonder about that.

• Still on the payroll:  The Washington Post , all in a huff, whines that former GM CEO Rick Wagonner is still on the payroll.  Why is that, though, is a question the Shaft….  errrr… Post… doesn’t get into with any detail.  The truth is, Waggoner is still there because the legal question about his contract is still not settled. Amazing. When the government can come in an nullify contracts, what are we to think about this government’s commitment to the rule of law?
• Speaking of removal for performance reasons: Newt Gingrich thinks Nancy Pelosi shouldn’t be speaker anymore. Fair enough, I suppose. And Limbaugh had the quote of the day on this… and I can’t find a link for it just now… (though he refers to the original comment here) Saying that if Pelosi really wanted to break the glass ceiling, she should resign, as her male predecessors have done.  Then, we’d be equal.
•  Gloves Off Again: Speaking of Pelosi, after my rant about Steele earlier today, and the article I linked in my PJM pirce, I was not shoced at all to find John Hawkins sounding off similarly on the subject of Pelosi. He’s right, of course.
•  Glass Houses:  And no, I’m not referencing Billy Joel, I’m talking about  Victor Davis Hanson’s latest column at Pajamas Media, Politicians in Glass Houses, Hurling Stones.
• Still here:  Amazingly enough, as of this morning, my piece Frustrated Conservative Base Itching to Take Off the Gloves is still on the front page over at Pajamas Media. I do note it’s gone as of around 1500 eastern time, today. A long run indeed, though I must say, I’m a little disappointed at the way the comment thread fell apart after about 225 comments or so. (Shrug)  That’s the nature of the beast, I suppose. I’m amazed the number of responses went so high, but my complaint is that the threads got a little muddled.   If nothing else, though, the attention this price got and is still getting demonstrates something I wrote about in a previous piece over there…
  

  I submit to you the reason that Joe the Plumber is elevated by conservatives to the degree that he has been is because the rank and file of the party have been ignored for too long by the leadership. The base is latching on to Joe as a drowning man does to a life preserver.

  Then, too, there’s the idea that as I said in the more recent article, liberals will always scream the loudest about what threatens their governmental power the most. That includes, of course anyone who forcefully articulates the conservative POV.

• Whats the price of being ‘nice’? Melissa looks at that question.

I’ve given Michael Steele every chance. I’ve held my tongue, while I watched him bumble around as, I reasoned, newcomers to any position will.  But this Politico column of today is the final straw.

First, the Republican Party will be forward-looking – it is time to stop looking backward. Republicans have spent ample time re-examining the past. It has been a healthy and necessary task. But I believe it is now time for Republicans to focus all of our energies on winning the future by emerging as the party of new ideas. Republicans are emerging once again with the energy, the focus, and the determination to turn our timeless principles into new solutions for the future.

 

No, Michael, wrong. Dead wrong. You’re trying to have it both ways, and that pattern is exactly why the GOP is on the outs just now. The choice Republicans make here will determine if they ever get their majority back. They lost that majority not because they tilted to far right, but that they went too far LEFT.

So, here’s the question now before the GOP leadership: Is it going to be “new ideas”, or “timeless principles”? It cannot be both. The resurgence you speak of is the number of people who are angry with the party for having compromised on those timeless principles to be seen as ‘new’ and fresh, and relevant. Such ideas are illusory. The GOP’s platform needs to be based on the principles of limited government laid out here.

Your comments not withstanding, Republicans as a party shouldn’t be, as they have been, focused on the idea that we need to change in order to be relevant. We need to show that our principles are already relevant and should never have been relinquished. Your inability to square yourself fully with that idea in my view disqualifies you from the position you now hold.

Addendum:  (David L)

This is simple.  The Barack Obama has declared war on the American People.  The retard in chief, wants to tax your health, the energy you use and the very car you drive.   Obama’s vision for our country will kill people,  longer waits for medical care, less medicines, more expensive energy and more dangerous cars.    Either Michael Steele, and the entire republican party, becomes part of the solution, or is just another part of the problem.    Either the republcan party needs to find some leaders  or the People need to find a party with leaders.    We are in a war.

Unconfirmed as yet, but the story is making the rounds that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is to resign. More as we find.

Addendum: False Alarm.  Turns out to be a RedState pointmaker, and the person resigning isn’t Pelosi, but the speaker of the British House of Commons, over the funding scandal, there.  Point of course being Nancy following Martin’s example.

I’m a little annoyed, actually.

In the story that is being reported, bassackwards,  Johnathan Martin, Politico, breathlessly reports, “Palin camp eyed Clinton alliance:”

Sarah Palin

In an unusual attempt to forge an alliance between two of the most prominent families in American politics, John Coale, a Washington-area Democratic donor and onetime adviser to Sarah Palin, urged the conservative Alaska governor to use her political action committee to help retire the presidential campaign debt of Hillary Clinton.

Coale, a wealthy trial attorney and the husband of Fox News talk show host Greta Van Susteren, approached Palin with the improbable plan in February while in Alaska with his wife, who was taping an interview with the former Republican vice presidential nominee.

Points:

• One, all B.J. and Mrs.  Clinton have to do to retire the her campaign debt is to write a check.    Do it.  Shut up and be gone!
• Two, according to the article, itself, and not the headline, it was the Clinton’s, via  Coale, that came to the Palins begging for money, not the other way around.
• Three, I find it distasteful for white trash Arkansas millionaires like B.J. and Mrs. Clinton to be hitting up working class families for money to pay off their debt.   Rich folks, like the Clinton’s, need to learn to pay their own bills.
•  Four, Sarah had the good sense, to show the Clinton proxy the door. 

  You go Sarah!