Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-03-15

• And trust me, Barry, if you have to call the New York Times to explain yourself about why you’re not a socialist, you more probably are one #
• Bruce; I wonder if you might get a loud attempt at such from the UAW #
• Testing Treo on Twitter #
• testing #hhrs #
• BITSBLOG! http://bitsblog.theconservativereader.com #hhrs #
• New BITSBLOG post: testing Palm posting channel-ignore http://bitsblog.theconservativereader.com/?p=17929 #
• taking a break #
• My, that was a nice summer. 50 degress th morning 20 deg now. Yechhhhh #
• RT @jimtreacher: Some vulgar dimwit who can’t go a day without embarrassing the President of the United States? Don’t we have that w/Obama?  #
• Can someone RT Right WIng News’s latest blast?  #
• Fark: Left finally comes to terms that Obama is not Jesus. Jesus could actually build a cabinet http://snipr.com/dre6i #
• Left complains for years Limbaugh is just an entertainer. So why are we taking Stewart Seriously?  #
• Obama should consider getting Madoff to run the Social Security system.  The skills needed are identical, after all.  #
• Obama Recognizes He Can’t Control Economy, Offers Placebo. http://snipr.com/drev5 #
• The change of attitude coming from this White House is enough to give one whiplash, if one is actually paying attention #
• If the banks are now showing profits on the books, they were making that profit while Obama was telling us we were in crisis.  #
• So were you lying then, or are you lying now? Pick one #
• Hersh: Cheney Ran a Secret Assassination Ring? Oh, Please. http://snipr.com/drf13 #
• Matt, I have a palm 650… is there one for that?  #
• Only got 250 text msg /mo… on this thing I’d blow that in half a day #
• The Right Noises From NY GOP, But We’ve Heard This Before http://snipr.com/drgbm #
• Doctor Bithead in the server room with the hard drive array.  #
• Late fall NY grapes, shot one http://snipr.com/drr0k #
• Late fall NY Grapes Shot 2 http://snipr.com/drr1x #
• Late fall sunset Lake Erie, off Portland, NY Columbus day weekend, 2008 http://snipr.com/drokh #
• Death penalty for wring viruses, I say #
• 20/20 and Reason: “Bailouts & Bull” http://snipr.com/dsy63 #
• That and Thomas #
• darn typos #
• The always complains that Limbaugh isnt to be taken seriously since he’s only an ‘entertainer’. Why, then take Jon Stewart seriously?  #
• Something I”ve noted about twitter. My typing realy sucks #
• Obama Recognizes He Can’t Control Economy, Offers Placebo. (RT) http://snipr.com/drev5 #
• Obama Signs Law Banning Federal Embryo Research Two Days After Signing Executive Order to OK It http://snipr.com/dt1t6 #
• I’m off to create some slow cooked chicken stew #
• RT @gmlogmd: @EricFlorack Debate is only appropriate for liberals if they think they control and win the argument-otherwise they censor #
• RT @jimtreacher: Sex tape of Keith Olbermann just turned out to be him looking at his naked reflection in his framed Cornell Degree.  #
• Is there anyone quite as insecure, emotionally, than a leftist? Olberman, case in point. Obama? Hmmm.  #
• Oh Deer! Photo Shows Man Bolting Antlers on Doe. (Bolting them on?) http://snipr.com/dt7hz #
• Sounds like a Monty Python skit #
• Woman Hospitalized After Sex Power Saw Mishap http://snipr.com/dt8o1 #
• tHINK: the tax cheats etc are the ones who want into this administration and are willing to work toward Obama’s policy objectives.  #
• Whereas the principled ones, are backing away like someone who has just found out they’ve been flirting with a female impersonator.  #
• It’s a MAN, Baby!  #
• Michelle Obama comic book to be released in April http://snipr.com/dta5a #
• CUBA, VENEZUELA MAY HOST RUSSIAN BOMBERS Change we can believe in http://snipr.com/dta97 #
• Watching Buffalo Sabres #
• atlanta thrashers score… 18 min into first. score atl 1 buf 0 #
• end of first period atl 1 buf 0 #
• sabres scire twice in a minute or so. Sabres 2 thrashers 1 #
• buff scores again buf3 atl1 #
• end of third buf 3 atl 1 #
• atl scores shorthanded. atl 2 buf 3 #
• atl scores with 3.5 seconds left. atl 3 buf 3. going OT #
• end of ot: buf 3 atl 3. going to shootout #
• atl wins in shootout.  #
• outta here #
• Anyone recall what the drug case was involving states rights, where the state law was held to supercede the federal law?  CT, I think..  #
• Just recently #
• AH, never mind. THe Levine case. FOund it #
• It’s time we get out of the ntion that those who wish the world to return to the 14th centruy can be reasoned with.  #
• ..and who are, by their own words quite willing to kill 1000 of their own for the purpose of killing one Jew.  #
• Eliot Spitzer, has problems with Stimulus Package.  Spitzer knows all about using lots of money to have his package stimulated.  #
• Peace is not a product of negotiation. Rather, peace is a product of, and a benefit of, having won the war.  #
• A small collection of some of my work: http://bit.ly/kq1Mj #
• Every time we make pizza in this house, we know it’s done when the smoke alarm goes iff.  #
• err… off #
• So, have any Obama appointees resigned, today?  #
• how can i get trwwetdeck to follow hashmark groups?  #
• going moblie #
• out in the truck, waiting for a rare locomotive to come through #
• widow of sammy davis jr died yesterday.  #
• launch at the cape. always wanted to see one of those #
• wow.. WSB Atlanta coming up here to western NY… just pouring in #

A hero is a person who risks his life for a noble cause.   As such, Bruce Maloy was  a hero, Associated Press:

Bruce Maloy

SAMSON, Ala. – Many around Samson knew Bruce Maloy as their town’s comedian, a goodhearted, wiry little jokester who was always boasting about hitting it big someday.

In life, he never really got t

he spotlight he was seeking. But in the days following the massacre that shattered their small Alabama community, some have dropped the comedian label and replaced it with another: Hero.

Hat tip:  Michelle.

America, where ordinary men do extraordinary things.   We salute you Bruce.

Light up the victory cigar.  Team Obama has surrendered.   Operation Hush Rush is history. Mike Allen, Politico:

Beginning Sunday, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists.

A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor to Democrats’ message that Rush Limbaugh is the Republican Party leader. “We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention-getter,” the official said.

The old fat man has defeated,  Obama, and all his political hacks and media scyophants.  Team Obama took an old fat man and failed.   Given that how the flock is the one going to keep Russia bomber out of Cuba?

Interesting news on the energy front, today:

VIENNA -Wall Street Journal- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Sunday decided against new production cuts and urged its members to fully implement the output reductions the cartel announced in late 2008, Iraqi oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani and OPEC delegates said.

“It’s a rollover, and they’ve urged everyone to get into line [and comply],” one delegate said.

OPEC’s top oil producer Saudi Arabia resisted new production cuts Sunday out of concern for the economy, a delegate said.
“We have agreed that all members [should] adhere to previous cuts,” Qatari oil minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said. “We agreed to remove 800,000 barrels a day, the remaining [amount] of the previous cuts.”

Iran and Kuwait had wanted more cuts but agreed to leave the group’s existing production ceiling unchanged for now, the delegate said.

Saudi Refinery

The group agreed to fully comply with the existing output cuts that OPEC announced late last year, Mr. Attiyah said.

Some background:

The reasoning behind Iran and Kuwait wanting more production cuts is that they need the price to be raised to be able to make any serious money out of their oil fields.  They’re production costs on a per barrel bases are much higher than everyone else is.  There is much in the way of speculation that the Saudis are intentionally keeping the Iranians at bay financially so that they don’t have to keep them at bay militarily.

An interesting article from Ronald D. Rotunda in the Chicago Tribune, this morning.

Because some governors might not accept the money, Congress added a unique provision, in subsection 1607(b): “If funds provided to any State in any division of this Act are not accepted for use by the Governor, then acceptance by the State legislature, by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution, shall be sufficient to provide funding to such State.”

If state law does not give the state legislature the right to bypass the governor, how can Congress just change that law? Where does Congress get the power to change a state constitution?

—
It is unlikely that subsection (b) will survive constitutional challenge. Does that mean that the entire law is unconstitutional or only subsection (b)? That depends on whether Congress considered the entire bill to be a uniform whole, so that if one part must fall, all must fall. Or, did it want the courts to sever the unconstitutional part of the law and leave the remainder intact?

It may seem silly to worry about such matters when we know that Congress was in such a hurry to enact this bill that a great many congressmen—perhaps all of them—did not have a chance to read all of it. But, the courts will still have to decide the severability issue and invalidate more than subsection (b).

I caught hell recently on another blog for raising the whether or not the action of Obama and the Democrats in Congress was actually constitutional and this matter.  Correction; I caught hell for even raising the question.

Yet, Rotunda is a professor at Chapman University’s School of Law. if there’s anyone on the planet who is capable of raising such questions it is he.

The issue, as he points out, is that of state’s rights.  The issue there and he is protecting the people from the Federal government.  Rotunda says, correctly:

As Justice Hugo Black reminded us over 40 years ago, “The proceedings of the original Constitutional Convention show beyond all doubt that” the framers denied Congress “the power to veto or negat[e] state laws,” but that is exactly what subsection (b) does. To give Congress such power “distorts our constitutional structure of government.” But that is what subsection (b) does.

With that in mind, we now have perhaps an interesting tie into a recent case in Vermont that was in the headlines recently, Wyeth v. Levine. (06-1249).

In that case, we had a professional guitarist by the name of Diana Levine lose her arm because of improper administration of an anti-nausea drug. Of course Levine sued. The claim was that the drug company should be held liable for the incident, owing to lack of sufficient warning labels, according to the state’s standards. The drug company, Wyeth, countered that their labeling already conformed to federal standards. The question then, because if the federal government had primacy in the matter. The Supreme court ruled they did not, and ruled for the plaintiff.

The implication here is far wider, I think, and speaks loudly to the issue of states’ rights.  And thereby, it speaks to the case of the ‘Stimulus’, as well. It speaks to the question of whether not the actions of Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats are in fact constitutional.  I’m no lawyer, but if I had to make a semi educated up survey shun to the matter I’d have to say to no they were not , and I would have to conclude that the question of whether or not their actions were constitutional were eminently reasonable.

Which is as well, since I have serious doubts on it being the last.

Then what would you expect from a hick from Arkansas who is so dumb that he didn’t know the meaning of sex or even the definition of “is:”

Suggestion, maybe it the quest host contract that the Larry’s fill in has to play dumb like Larry and just accept everything the quest says at face value.

Hat tip and more: Stop the ACLU:

I guess Clinton was deprived of “comprehensive sex education” in school.

 As well as sleeping through his ethics classes in law school.

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

This is the “Mirror Image” edition.  I got to thinking; What would happen if I started applying the website CSS to other objects? This is the first result. And yeah, I’ve used it before. But I’m working on another one, which brought this to mind.  

• The party’s over: Looks like Obamas approval ratings are falling fast.  The article doesn’t except well, so I’ll ask you to simply Go and RTWT.  Oh, and on that point, it’s nice to see Megan McArdle finally recognizing  reality on Obama. I called that one, too. Jen Rubin has a great piece on this today, as well. Remember I said that the administration was using the crisis to push an agenda they’d have pushed anyway? They’d better hurry.
• Maybe it’s the people: The Obama nominess are dropping like flies. I’m not even keeping up with them in the blog anymore. Another one yesterday, apparently. There’s the criminals, who back out when even the most cursory of investigation finds them wanting in that area. Then there’s the ones not caught up in criminal behavior, (Taxes or whatever) who seem to be backing away when they find out what they’re signing on for. Think of it, people… the tax cheats etc are the ones who want into this administration and are willing to work toward Obama’s policy objectives. The principled ones, are backing away like someone who has just found out they’ve been flirting with a female impersonator. (It’s a MAN, Baby…)
• Stewart v Cramer (Flyweight division) : I’ll keep this one short: The reason Stewart can get all the recognition he does with this is because the Dinosaurs refuse to ask such questions.   Then again, as Mark Hemmingway says:
  

  I’m sorry, attacking Jim Cramer’s credibility puts you on par with Edward R. Murrow and taking on a corrupt president? As I wrote in my piece, “Anyone who has tuned into his show and seen Cramer strutting around a soundstage that looks like the helm of the Starship Enterprise as envisioned by the Teletubbies’ set designer and pushing buttons that make wacky sound effects could tell you that Cramer is to stock-picking what The Daily Show is to TV news: something not to be taken too seriously.”

  He’s got that part right… I mean, I have to figure that anyone who embraces as anti-business a candidate as Obama demonstrably is, while making pretense of being a capitalist mogul, is a hard sell anyway, in my book… and add to it Cramer’s overt support of Ron Paul and you’ve got someone totally detached from reality and thereby totally unqualified  in any kind of advice giving position at all, much less in the role of financial and investment advice.

  Think about this, though;  if Stewart and Cramer are both lightweights and I agree they are, where does that place the dinosaurs who for years wouldn’t ask the same kind of questions Stewart did,  of Cramer and people like him, back when Cramer was an Obama supporter?   Stewart is being called a hero simply because nobody’s ever bothered to question Cramer before.

  Hemmingway suggests that Stewart went after Cramer and in turn CNBC in general, because Santelli went after Obama on CNBC. (Shrug) It’s possible, and even likely I guess, and I’d not put it past any of them. That said, who did what, specifically doesn’t seem to matter much to the point that there are political, not principled motivations driving all of this. Once that bridge is crossed it’ not much of a walk to the other conlcusions one could make about who was directing this revenge-fest, including the same team of Clinton WhiteHouse morons that went after Limbaugh recently. 

  Bottom line; I won’t defend Cramer. But I wonder, now; The left has been complaining for years that Limbaugh was not to be taken seriously, since he’s only an ‘entertainer’. Why, then, take Stewart seriously? Think about that over your pizza tonight.

• In other words: Rick Moran beat me to the punch with this one.  My own version is posted here.
• Fark Snark:  Gotta love FARK:
  

  Left finally comes to terms that Obama is not Jesus. Jesus could actually build a cabinet

  I seriously doubt they’ve come to terms with it, but ya gotta love the line.

• It’s the weekend, Baby:  Supposed to be 50 around here this weekend. We’ll see how that works out. I may even get the garage cleaered out.
• Madoff response: Of all the response I got from last night’s Madoff comments, the one that really caught my eye was the suggestion that Obama should consider getting Madoff to run the Social Security system.  The skills needed are identical, after all.
•  Count ’em….I’m not a Syracuse fan, but good lord… Six overtimes?
•  Of Billboards and such: A shout out to David, who asked an excellent question this monring. Jonah has a great answer.

I don’t exactly consider Mrs. Pelosi to the sharpest knife in the drawer, but on the other hand, at least she can count votes.

Consider these facts:  The Obama economy is cratering.    The $trillion or so Porkulus package utterly failed to stimulate the economy(how could it?).   Mrs.  Pelosi got exactly zero Republican votes for Porkulus.

The Obama economy is failing, and Mrs Pelosi and her ‘rats own it    Yet, having seen Congress waste a trillion dollars on one phony stimulus bill, the public seems ill inclined to support yet another.   Mrs. Pelosi needs to get the economy turned around yet she does not have the votes for another stimulus.

Ben Pershing, Washington Post:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that a second economic stimulus package is not “in the cards” in the short term, disappointing those seeking another quick infusion of federal money into the struggling economy. 

When Mrs. Pelosi says that a second stimulus package is not in the cards, she is conceding that she does not have the votes.    Mrs. Pelosi totallly wasted  her first shot at fixing the economy, Porkulus, and now she doesn’t have the political backing for another shot.

Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Magazine, notes a change of tune:

Obama changes his tune: “Confronting misgivings, even in his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of his blueprint to overhaul the economy Thursday, declaring the national crisis is ‘not as bad as we think’ and his plans will speed recovery.” What happened to the catastrophe? Well, if things are not so bad we can stop spending money for the sake of spending money

At least unlike Porky, talk is cheap.   BO’s new tune, gives Mrs. Pelosi cover for not spending more tazpayer dollars.

I tossed this out at Q&O, almost as a throwaway. But the more I consider things, I wonder if I’ve not hit on something central. I’ve cleaned it up here a bit, since it was originally composed and posted on my Palm Treo. The topic is the economy and what we’re seeing out of the White House just now.

The indecision we see from Obama and Gethner just now is driven ask much as anything by being stunned that their plans didn’t work. They have always figured onthe standard set of leftist ‘if/then’ being the solution for any problem they might face.

What we are seeing now, is shock that not only did liberalism not solve the issue, it’s made things worse. This confusion is then compounded by voter anger, even among their supporters.

Those are all huge hurdles to get over before they can take other action.

The delay at the moment is them, trying to come up with a new plan…  One that will actually work and that doesn’t run afoul of their liberal mindset… Of course such a plan doesn’t exist, nor can it given the nature of both economies and liberalism.

I’m convinced this is really at the heart of what we see coming from the Obama White House just now.  These thoughts would seem to be confirmed by the new tactic sprung on us last night by the President.

WASHINGTON -FoxNews- President Obama is embracing a mantle of confidence-builder in chief. Whether he is meeting with his own economic advisers or worried business leaders, his message is meant to be calm and reassuring — even in the wake of more bad economic news.

Obama will have another opportunity to assert his optimism after he meets Friday with Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who now guides the president’s economic recovery advisory board. Volcker was preparing to brief Obama and his economic team on how the $787 billion stimulus package is working.

Speaking to a gathering of the nation’s CEOs on Thursday, Obama defended his plans for pulling the economy out of a downward spiral, saying that his long-term view gives him reason to maintain optimism despite an uptick in unemployment and falling economic indicators.

One gets the impression he has finally given in to the notion that he and his people really don’t know what to do about things either. And more, as the linked article indicates, he’s started to get resistance from his own party on what policies he’s come up with, and even if he knew what to do, he doesn’t have the support, even in his own party, to do it.  So, he changes tactics, and does what many doctors will do when trying to pacify something he can’t control; he offers a placebo.

It seems a little out of place, though. The change of attitude coming from this White House is enough to give one whiplash, if one is actually paying attention.  After two and a half years of talking the economy down… ‘It’s the worst economy since the Depression’, and so on…now, things aren’t as bad as all that. Makes one want to check to see if his nose is growing. 

“For all the, you know, angst that’s been out there, you’ve got banking institutions that are still functioning and, lo and behold, making profits,” Obama said.

So, Mr. President, were you lying to us before, or are you lying to us now? If they have profits on the books, that means they were MAKING those profits while you were telling us all we were in the crisis of our lives.

I suppose the change of direction on that,  is of a kind with how dissent used to be the highest form of patriotism, but now cannot be tolerated. It all depends on who is in office, and what your political needs are.  I’d like to say we’re being manipulated, but that would be too obvious, wouldn’t it?

It has become quite obvious why Barack Obama has never released his college transcripts.   Obama is dumber than a hod of bricks, Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers:

WASHINGTON – The deepening recession is taking a slight toll on President Barack Obama’s standing, but he’s still twice as popular as archnemesis Rush Limbaugh, according to a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll.

Archnemesis?   Obama has the wrong target.   Limbaugh is not the one trying to develop nuclear weapons and threating to wipe out Israel.    That would be one Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.     Limbaugh isn’t the one attacking our Navy on the high seas.   That would be China.  Lastly, Limbaugh is not the one that tanking the United States economy.  That would be the one  himself.    Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal:

Presidents throughout history have kept lists of political foes. But the Obama White House is the first I am aware of to pick targets based on polls. Even Richard Nixon didn’t focus-group his enemies list.

Team Obama — aided by Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg — decided to attack Rush Limbaugh after poring over opinion research. White House senior adviser David Axelrod explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House press corps into dropping what they were doing to get Mr. Limbaugh

Call Obama what you will.   Smart he isn’t.    BO can no more salvage the wreck that is his economy by savaging Rush Limbaugh, than Adolf Hitler could salvage the German economy by attacking the Jews.   They both are the politics of distractions.   Smart people don’t fall for distractions.

The ‘rats had a contest to write the slogan for an anti-Rush Limbaugh billboard.  This is this winner of that contest:

“Americans didn’t vote for a Rush to failure

Michelle thinks the slogan is lame.   So do I    If fact, I will open the floor readers to submit their own anti-Rush slogan, all in the spirit of fun.    Submit your own witty Rush bashing slogan.    No slogan can change the fact that Barack Obama has crashed the economy.    Limbaugh’s show makes money.   Obama’s presidency is draining our nations wealth.

Don Surbet:

The DNC picked the above sign to be its anti-Rush Limbaugh billboard, because as everyone knows President Obama cannot handle anything tougher than an overweight, hard-of-hearing old guy in Florida.

Watch who you are calling old Don.

Whatever one thinks of Limbaugh, he’s not the one trying to use rising unemployment, a plummeting stock market, the alleged impending collapse of the financial system and a host of other fears about the future to advance his policy agenda

Mark Tapscott, DC Examiner

Welcome one and all to the most intense Nightly Read on the sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the BitsBallcap edition.

Yes, indeed, this object to the right is the genuine article, the Bits Ballcap, the subject of a multitude of tippage, as I salute or thank one being or another. Always nice to have a picture of what I’m talking about. When I say BBCT, from now on, you know what I’m talking about… it’s a Bits Ballcap Tip.

•  How much he Madoff with? It was mildly interesting, and more than a litle bizzare, to watch Fox and Freinds doing live coverage of Bernie Madoff’s trip to the court in southern Manhattan, to plead in his case.Bizzare, because first, I very seldom get a street level view of the place anymore.  No, seriously. I know that’s not the subject at hand, but don’t you ever get to looking at real-lfe shots of cities in movies to get a feel of what it must be/have been like??Secondly, there appeared to be some confusion on what Madoff was riding in. Apparently, the word got out he was driving a silver wagon crossover affair… so they first focused on a silver VW, then on a silver Kia.  Forgive me, but I have some instinctive problems with envisioning Madoff driving either of those… particularly the Kia. You can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t a calculated thing; Driving to the court in a stretch wouldn’t have made many freinds, I suppose.  Thirdly, and obviously most important, comes the idea of some kind of justice for all the people who lost so much.  There’s a lot riding on this, and frankly I have my doubts most of the money will ever be recovered. Madoff, it strikes me, if he’s smart enough to have carried on this charade for so long, is also likely smart enough to have planned all of this out; he’s got a chuck of it squrreled away somewhere for his close associates, since it seems clear he’ll never be spending it himself. And plans or no, most of the stuff is likely already spent, in any event.Then there’s the aspect of him ever getting a fair trial.  No, I’m not being sympathetic, here, but hear me out, please.  The left points at the court cases of the poor and suggests the reason the conviction rates are so high for less well off is that their representation isn’t up to the drill. They also claim juries are intrnically biased against the poor. Argue those points if you will, I bring them up only in comparison. Given the massive coverage of this thing, and how very many rich folks… and formerly rich folks, are lined up against this guy, I wonder if they can find a jury that hasn’t made up it’s mind before word one is spoken in trial. I made mention of this over at OTB the other day,and of course the populists were aghast at this. I got the usual nonsense, that I was a typical rightie, defending the rich… despite specifically saying “I’m not defending him”. (Sorry, I don’t have the link to hand, just now; this is being composed on the Palm Treo.) But this shows us a couple things; First, that emotions are running high… a deadly situation for anyone seeking a fair trial, as the left usually loves to remind us… and secondly, the cries of ‘equal justice under the law’ from the left tend to get drowned out in the populist notions that are always involved in a case like this.
  I’ll doubtless have more to say on all of this as the case moves forward. I predict this thing will have a small mountain of teachable moments as regards our attitudes toward class warfare, and crime,  and I plan to latch onto those, as I find them.
• Poor little Rich Girl:

  Since we’re on the subject of class warfare, it does seem fitting we should brush up against the subject of Nancy Pelosi using the United States Military as her own airlnine. Check this report from Judicial watch.  It strikes me that she’s getting a pass on the class warfare bit, with this, to say nothing of the misuse of the military, and their funding. The big problem of course is that her district’s voters see nothing wrong with this.

• I will never join the dark side:  Heh.
•  A hoax? No…. but…  You’d be amazed at how much traffic I got last night from apparently liberal sources trying to find evidence that the Bill Sammon story I ran yesterday was a hoax. I tellyou true; I was.  Search strings like “Carville 9/11 fail hoax” kept my servers hopping from the moment the Sammon story broke. It’s not a hoax, of course. The Democrats ahve been caught red handed on this one, and they’re not going to wiggle out of it.   The parade of leftists I saw gracing my screen this morning on the morning news shows trying to say what Carville said wasn’t the same as what Limbaugh said, tells me they’re embarrassed, and unable to convincingly… even to themselves… defend this nonsense. The story has backfired on them bigtime.. and my hitcount listings tell me they’re desperate to deflect this one. They will fail.
• Interesting note from The Hill:
  

  Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don’t and won’t understand the link between economic revival and Obama’s huge agenda, which includes saving the banking industry, ending home foreclosures, reforming healthcare and developing a national energy policy, among much else.

  While lawmakers debate controversial proposals contained in the new president’s debut budget — cutting farm subsidies, raising taxes on charitable contributions, etc. — there is a growing sense that time is running out faster than expected.

  Well, no. See, the problem, Democrats, is the people DO in fact understand. They know there IS no link. The whole thing is a ruse to get the far left’s agenda in place. And you’re right. Time has, in fact run out faster than you expected. The voters are angry, and know they’ve been lied to.

• More tea, Vicar? Speaking of angry voters, Chuck Simmins and his team are to be commended. They ran a successful Tea Party in nearby Rochester NY.  He’s got Photos, too.  And ch13 did some coverage, as well. I couldn’t attend, alas. There as some aspects of my job I can’t put off, and I ran into one of them yesterday.  That’s why you don’t often see Conservatives protesting anything; Unlike the left, they actually have jobs. Jobs that unlike Union employees, won’t pay them to carry protest signs for leftie casues.  So as I’ve said before… that the TeaParty thing has gone as far as it has is remarkable. BBCT, Chuck…
• But, for how long? The New York Times picks up  Ross Douthat.  This would be to fill William Kristol’s shoes… which I grant isn’t all that much of a challange.  A fair enough choice , though, particularly given the recent history of the paper. I have my doubts, however, if the paper itself won’t end up being a corrupting influence.  The Times of late seems to be suffering from the syndrome of King Midas in reverse’ when it comes to anything not of the left.
• Big Bang theory with Bagels:  BBCT and best wishes to Matt Margolis who got rear-ended by another car in the Buffalo Southtowns this morning. Missed Bagel day at work, too, the poor sod. As you might guess by my tone, nothing major… he’s apprently OK…  though the hospital people took up most of the morning running tests. Xrays, EKG, the works.

Mark Hemingway at The Corner:

I was perusing an old column by Kevin Rennie, the former Connecticut state legislator that broke the cottage story, and noticed this interesting tidbit:

During the fourth quarter of 2008, Dodd’s Senate re-election campaign — Friends of Chris Dodd, indeed — paid $65,000 in legal fees to the firm Perkins Coie. So far, Dodd has spent more than $120,000 of campaign funds on his defense. The law firm is the single largest expense of his re-election campaign and it is for a personal matter. From October through December of last year, Dodd’s re-election campaign spent nearly a quarter of what it raised in that period on legal fees.

Rennie notes that a large chunk of those campaign funds came from banking interests. So I don’t know about you, but I find it awfully reassuring that in the middle of a major economic crisis and the accompanying government bank bailouts, the head of the Senate Banking Committee is indebted to bank lobbies to pay the legal tab for his personal corruption.

Mark you old meanie. Don’t you understand this is for our interests they’re doing this?
(popping cheek)
It’s clear the Dinosaurs have been ignoring this story. It’s mentioned in the archive as Mark mentions, but nobody bothered following up on it? Can you imagine that happening if a Republican is involved?

WTOP in DC:

WASHINGTON – A D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employee and a government contractor have been arrested in a federal bribery sting, sources tell WTOP.

D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employee Yusuf Acar and Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation President and CEO Sushil Bansal have been arrested, sources tell WTOP.

Acar, 40, was taken into custody Thursday morning by FBI agents at his home in Northwest D.C.

Bansal has received multiple contracts from the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Office, including contracts to develop Web-enabled applications and IT and anti-spyware support.

The FBI is now serving a search warrant at the office of D.C.’s Chief Technology Officer, WTOP has learned.

“We are there as part of a continuing ongoing criminal investigation,” FBI Washington Field Office spokesperson Katherine Schweit tells WTOP.

Schweit would not comment on the details of the investigation

Ya know at some point, even Obama’s supporters are going to start asking questions. Indeed, one commentor on the WTOP site, apparently a bit red-faced says:

I’m starting to feel a little goofy for voting for him. Where does he find these people?

Well, in answer, I offer again what I said yesterday:

Like all new Presdients, Obama picked people with whom he can work and who are of a mind like to his own on the issues of the day, and things like integrity, worldview and so on. This is the very flower of the liberal politics he espouses, and particularly, the Chicago style of liberal politics Obama was steeped in. Add a generous dash of Soros money and Clintonista muscle, and I suspect what we see right now, is what we get, and that he’s not going to be any better than this for the next four years.