A Historic Day? Sure, But What Kind of History?

Every day… EVERY day… is history, once it has passed. Good or bad, different or indifferent, laughable, or lamentable, it’s all the same.  I offer that almost axiomatic point to those pointing to today’s inauguration as some kind of historical milestone.  I do so because it seems to me we’ve made it into some kind of hysterical milestone, instead. The whipped up hysteria is almost sickening both of itself and for the negative reaction that will occur once reality sets in.

 Many of us seem fixated on the idea that we’ve elected the first black president in history. The question of that person being Barack Obama being a good or bad thing aside, it’s the issue of color I want to focus on for just a second, because I wonder if we’ve not sublimated positions on various issues of the day to the issue of Mr. Obama’s race. The feeling among many seems to be that Obama’s race is of greater import than what he will do with the office, and with it, the trust of the American people. So we apparently may judge by the reaction we see in the gallery, today.

 We have just yesterday, celebrated a holiday for Rev Doctor Martin Luther King.  Both David and I quoted his “I have a dream” speech, yesterday, wherein he says, his dream is of a world where people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He’s talking about a post-racial society. Certainly, this is a dream worth having.

 But, while there are those with stars in their eyes, and celebration on their lips, who tell us that the election of Mr. Obama means we have crossed that particular hurdle of post-racialism,  I suggest that by virtue of the fact that so much weight is placed on Mr. Obama’s race by his backers, we have in fact not crossed that post-racial hurdle, as yet. After all, if we are in a post racial society, why on earth would Obama’s color even be brought up, much less be meaningful in any substantial way? It seems we have a way to go, yet.

 There are those who will answer with the suggestion that the presidency of Mr. Obama is a positive thing, since it will allow blacks to achieve. Yet, they apparently make this judgment based on Mr. Obama’s race alone, and forgetting his political leanings… leanings toward a party and a group of policies that have been demonstrably racist.  If there is a single political party that has been responsible for keeping blacks on the plantation, it is the Democrat party.  That point has been proven time and time again.   (PDF)

Mr. Obama is a Democrat.  As such, he has willingly signed himself onto that racist history and more importantly, it’s continuence.  How this conflict is accounted for by Mr. Obama’s supporters, seems to be more an inexplicable emotional attachment, more than a facts based assessment. Were it the latter, I suspect the reaction to it would be the traditional one used with all posing carpetbaggers…involving feathers, hot tar, and a rail.

 So, a historic day? Certainly.  Then again, as I’ve said, they all are, once they have passed.  But, a good day?  I don’t think so.

 This will be unpopular, I’m sure, but I thnk it fair to say that with the election of a Democrat, of whatever skin color, given the both historical and current actions on the part of the members of the Democrat party on race, and particularly the actions Mr. Obama has already stated he’s going to take in the near future, means we have actually moved further away from Dr. King’s dream, not closer.  And I regard that as a loss for our country, as should all who dare claim Dr. King’s dream, and legacy.

The only question that remains in my mind is how long it will take for the reality of it to be recognized among Mr. Obama’s ardent supporters.  It’ll be a bit, I’m sure; there’s far too much in the way of frenzy among his supporters just now to feel reality.  However, that euphoria will eventually give way as it always does, to the hangover of reality. It will be a while in coming, though.  Too long,  I fear, for our own good, but it will happen, and long before the end of Mr. Obama’s one term presidency.

It’s in the middle of that hangover that we’ll doubtless hear many resolutions never to do that again.  Were that such resolutions were actually kept.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble

Lots going on, today, despite it being a holiday. Let’s get to it.

• It’s about time you did this, Mr. President.  Only one thing I want to know… why the delay?
• Fred Dickeris reporting that Caroline Kennedy is the odds on fave for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, according to what he’s hearing.   OK, Rumor mill and all that, but still… Dicker is usually reliable in the extreme, and Patterson strikes me as just dumb enough, and enough of a party loylaist to  make such a singularly stupid appointment,  so I’m inclined to take this report at face value.  Do the Democrats really think there’s not going to be a negative reaction at the polls in a couple years? I think they’ll be suprised.
• This has to be the longest Glenn Reynolds post I’ve seen in a year. He usually does this around the point in time I’ve figured he lost the ability for longer form commentary. Now if only he could get one correct. I think Jonah’s right, this time.
• If Rachel Maddow is telling the truth, here… (A stretch, in my vew, at best) then there’s but one conclusion to draw; She’s spending an awful lot of time complaining about something she knows little or nothing about. Gee… someone at MSNBC venting at length on something they know nothing about. Who’d have thought it?
• I also think Len Pitts has another topic covered;
  

  How do you reconcile that with all those cartoons of Lincoln congratulating Obama? You don’t. You simply recognize it for what it is: yet another illustration of how shallow our comprehension of history is, yet another instance where myth supersedes reality.Not that this is anything new — or that political cartoonists are the only ones susceptible. Indeed, African Americans once tended to regard Lincoln with an almost religious reverence. Consider another Lincoln statue, this one in a park east of the Capitol: It depicts Lincoln towering over a newly freed black man who kneels at his feet. While modern eyes might find the image unbearably paternalistic, it represented the heartfelt sentiment of the black men and women who gave it to the city in 1876 in gratitude, they said, for Lincoln freeing the slaves.

  Of course, Lincoln freed no slaves. That’s the myth. His Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure to demoralize and destabilize the rebellious South; it covered states he did not govern but did not apply in slaveholding states that remained under his jurisdiction.

  None of which is to deny or diminish the greatness of the 16th president

  I’d even take that a step farther… and I may do an extended write up on the topic;  Leaving Lincoln agreeably aside, I’m not convinced Martin Luther King would have been very happy about Obama, either, the repeated invocation of both their names notwithstanding.  How could someone whose stated dream involved “being judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” have supported Obama whose skin color was clearly the biggest factor in his assention to the throne  election?

• I see Obama’s buddy, Bill Ayers got turned away at the Canadian border last night. Says he has no idea why he got turned away. Liar.
• $150 million for the party tomorrow? No big deal, particularly given the amount of money we’re already tossing around. But I’m still annoyed. Remember, gang, this is the crew that bitched up a blue streak about Bush spending a comparatively anemic $50 million four years ago.  Oh.. and ignore the claims that Obama’s money for this all comes form Priavte sources.  Who is paying for the added security? Who is paying for the record number of porta-potty deployments?  How many of the supposedly private donations are from companies… banks, for example, that the government just bailed out?  Trust me; there’s a pile of tax money involved. I’d venture to say, most of it. That they can’t at least be honest about that, is a serious issue. The level of hypocracy surrounding complaints about Bush’s $50musd  and the silence about Obama spending at least three times that much, added to it, makes the whole thing simply staggering. If this is an indication of the kind of time we’re going to have with Obama and company, we’re in serious trouble.
• Speaking of that, I don’t wanna hear about how we’re in such trouble with the economy, anymore, and how we’ve all got to make sacrifices, from a guy who just spent enough money on his coronation that directed at his native Kenya, (Yes, I still think so) would feed the entire population for several weeks. I don’t want to hear congress critters complaining about CEO pay going up while the companies themselves are in trouble, when the Democrat Congress keeps voting itself raises.
• I grow weary with people telling me I’ve ‘got it in for Obama’. Does anyone happen to remember the nonsense the right has had to put up with for eight long years? Bad enough that the guy we were defending wasn’t really very conservative, but the foamers brought the science of the political attack to levels not seen since Hitler or Stalin.(Perhaps why crazy Uncle Hugo is so loud on the subject?)  Deb Saunders in the San Fran Chron today apparently sees this fairly clearly:
  

  From the day President Bush took office, the long knives were out for him – in ways they will not (and should not) be out for President-elect Barack Obama. The chattering class saw Dubya as a walking style crime in a cowboy suit. They hit Bush for everything – for the way he mangled syntax, for the books he read, because he worked out too muchNote now that the buff Obama is taking office, stories gushing about Obama’s daily workouts flood the channels. Oh, yes, and the same people who belittled Bush for sending troops to war even though he only served in the National Guard somehow do not seem to notice Obama’s utter lack of military experience.

  To trash Bush was to belong. There was little upside in supporting Bush, even if you had supported his agenda.

  Most of the Democratic candidates for president in 2004 and 2008 voted for the Patriot Act – and then campaigned against it. They voted for the resolution authorizing U.S. military force in Iraq – then bolted from the war itself. Likewise with No Child Left Behind. Somehow Bush was the guy who looked bad as he withstood the heat, while his caving critics preened.

  I think Deb’s hit on a central point, here. I may dive into that in long form as time and inspiration allow, but for now, consider this a reminder, Obama supporters, of what Bush and his people have put up with from you. Your complaints about current attacks on Obama have no legs whatever, thereby.

• Good news from the AFC game last night; Former Bill and current RB Willis McGahee isn’t all that badly off, as we thought he might have been last night.

On Saturday, Brian Douglass opened up over at Pajamas Media:

A little over a year ago, Honda’s luxury Acura brand was criticized for not offering a powerful V8 engine in its flagship sedan. After all, the pundits opined, luxury buyers insist on eight or more cylinders when they’re spending more than $50,000 for a premium chariot. The fact that Acura’s 3.7-liter V6 generated 300 horsepower, a specification that used to be perfectly reasonable for eight-cylinder motors, seemed not to matter. The image was everything.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, I pondered this supposed entrance to the luxury club with some amusement while I witnessed Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Cadillac, Lincoln, Chrysler, and the Fisker Karma all spin around their turntables with four-cylinder engines. If the name Fisker draws a blank, it’s a new start-up that’s building $80,000-and-up, plug-in, extended-range electric luxury cars. Electric luxury was also the theme for the other brands except Lincoln, which will test acceptance of rather petite luxury with turbocharged 1.6-liter power — the luxury equivalent of a pocket pooch.

Mmmpppfffhhh.

I submit to you that what we’re seeing here, is the restriction if not the end of American choice.  I further submit to you that image is still everything, despite the change in direction.  It’s just a matter now of who is in charge in Washington.

Yes, Washington.

Most of you weren’t alive, back when this happened last time. I was. We’ve done this before,  where American car manufacturers were forced to downsize dramatically so as to meet the supposed oil crisis, which was in fact a foreign policy crisis brought on by Jimmy Carter, along with the last big rise of the enviro-whack-job, which prevented us from taking avantage of the oil and gas we have available to us here in the US. Yes, we’re still feeling the pain from that misbegotten era.

You may not know this, but under Carter’s when the CAFE standards started. That’s what a bunch of liberals.. Carter at their head… got together and decided that they knew more about making cars than Detroit did, and proceeded down the road of micromanagement of Detroit.   The left figured they knew more about physics than the car companies and their scientists did, too. They figured all this business about so many miles for so many gallons could be changed by simply passing a law.  Of course, such things can’t happen that way, so Detroit went the only direction they could at the time; they went small. It essentially killed off Detroit over a period of years.

You may recall that those vehicles did not operate all that well. The Vega for example. Or, if you prefer, the Pinto. The Chevette.  The Fiesta.   The Gremlin.

That forced  downsizing,  in combination the with United Auto Workers overreaching, caused a very serious difficulties in keeping the businesses afloat that once kept the entire nation humming. It helped to kill off both American industry, and American drivers, with it.

It caused driver death rates to skyrocket, as smaller, lighter vehicles tried to make their way among their heavier and more solidly built brothers.

And in terms of killing off American industry, it was the Gremlin that did in American Motors. A valiant effort, the Gremlin, but too much change, too fast both from a design standpoint and the sales. GM and Ford were in a better position financially to deal with the strain placed on them by the federal government. Chrysler, meanwhile, needed a bailout by the time the Carter Administration was pushed out of office by an electorate sick of the incompetance and micromanagement.

All of this carnage, a direct result of Federal micromanagement.   It was suggested that the time, and correctly I think, that there were a good number of people who were demanding these changes , who really wanted to see the American auto manufacturing business collapse entirely.  And America, with it.  They damn near succeeded, too. The reaction to that, thankfully, was a sound defeat at the polls for Carter, and the beginning of the Reagan era.

If the noise is that I’m hearing a lot of the Detroit auto show from all sources including Brian Douglas, here, are of any indication, we’re about to go through that same scenario all over again. The reason is simple enough; Its fashionable. It’s currently all the rage to be ‘green’, just like it was the rage in the 70’s to be a great disco dancer.

I would suggest, that if you doubt what I’m saying you should look very closely at the traffic patterns on I-495 and I-695.  There are traffic cams that the various constabularies run for their own amusement, at taxpayer expense.  One of the advantages of that as you can tie in from anywhere in the country and see what’s going on in your favorite intersection across the country, around the world.  On the better cameras you can even see what people are driving.  It’s interesting, in the case of the freeways around Washington, to observe the econo- boxes mixing it up with stretch limos the size of tractor trailers. The liberal pols driving the limos, and the rest driving the stuff the pols tell them to drive.

If there is anything that has been taught us in the time between Jimmy Carter laying the blame for his failures at the feet of the American people, and today, it’s that the kind of cars that we’re seeing being pushed in Detroit just now,  the kind of cars currently so popular among the elitist left in Washington DC,  are precisely the kind of cars that will not sell once they hit the showroom floor.  Oh, I suppose you’ll probably get a number of people who will sign on to such beasts, like they did the previous fashionable vehciles, the Volvo 242, the Saab 9.5, and so on…  Or more recently the Prius… you know, the kind of vehicles that you drive because you’re so much better than everybody else.  And they’ve got the bumper stickers holding them together to prove it, still hawking Howard Dean’s failed presidential campaign, “Love Your Mother” and other such nonsense.  “After all, I’m saving the planet” is clearly the  ‘tude being pushed.   But as the makers of those particular machines are finding out, you can’t make enough money on them keep the company afloat.  Even Toyota just recently admitted  they’re losing money on the Prius. (Yes, I know, they deny it publicly… wouldn’t you?)

What we saw in Detroit this last weekend, is a strangled a gasp for air from an industry that has been over regulated for the last five decades at least.  You see, they know how to create what Washington wants.  So do the Japanese, and the Koreans, and for that matter the Germans and Italians.  It’s getting people to actually buy the things, that eludes them. As an example, even at the height of the recent gas price spikes, the biggest sellers were light trucks… something with a solid frame. Of these the Ford F-150 did best…  The kind of vehicle that doesn’t come with a shoehorn as standard equipment, and can actually haul something once in a while… like a trailer, for example.  Ever try to put a lawnmower in a Prius without futzing up the interior?  Ever been in an accident, in say, a Civic?

Then again, that’s not the concern of the elitist left , including the ones currently in power in Washington, now, is it?  They’re not worried if companies fail because they’re forced to sell vehicles nobody will buy. It’s not their jobs, or their lives,  on the line.

If there’s a bright spot in this, it’s that should the pattern hold, (and I suspect it will, assuming we actually survive the next four years as a nation),  we’re due for another Reaganesque conservative surge in four years.

From the mailbag:

Okay.  Here’s what I think liberals are, and what I think liberals believe.

Liberals are politically left of center elitists, who want to create ever-growing big governments that only they control, to take care of the nation and its people, which secures political power for liberals.  Liberals believe this to be the natural order of things.

Liberals believe the average man is a freedom-drooling, unruly swine that consumes too much, wastes too much, and who cannot think properly for himself or depend upon himself for his existence, but who must have his freedom regulated and controlled, otherwise there would be chaos.

Liberals believe that freedom is a responsibility that only liberals have the capacity to dole out as liberals see fit.

Liberals believe that only liberals can truly govern for the benefit of all because only liberals can make good judgements, therefore only liberals have have “the answer” to peace, love and happiness.

Liberals believe that all election laws exist for liberals to contrive and manipulate, that counting legal ballots from legally registered voters somehow supresses votes and disenfranchises someone, presumably illegal aliens, felons and other illegal “voters.”  Liberals believe sincerely in the words from the Great Men now in the Great Beyond, “Scarface” Al Capone and Mayor Richard J. Daley, Sr., both of Chicago: “vote early, and vote often.”

Liberals believe that all wealth in the nation belongs to the nation, and that only liberals have the capacity to distribute it as liberals see fit;  from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.  In practice, liberals believe the proper wealth ratio is 1:3, sometimes referred to as “one for you, three for me.”

Liberals believe all military action is unnecessary, therefore all military funding is unecessary.  Liberals believe that money would be better spent on bean sprouts and tofu.  And more brie.

Liberals believe they see kindred spirits in the nation’s enemies, in dictators and terrorists.  Liberals believe these groups are just misunderstood liberals.

Liberals believe, if any nation has a quarrel with us, then WE must be at fault because we did some unknown something, and therefore that we deserve whatever evil is visited upon us.

Liberals believe all talk is greater than any action or deed.  But liberals also believe that all talk is malleable, that it’s okay to say one thing and mean something just the opposite, especially when addressing political adversaries and the aforementioned swine.  After all, they’re only words.

Liberals believe we should talk with our nation’s enemies to iron things out.  In no case do liberals believe they should talk with their political  adversaries, and only to the swine as necessary.  Liberals believe that to be  truly nonpartisan, liberals must ignore others wants and needs, and exclusively pursuit their own.

Finally, liberals believe that what’s good for liberals must necessarily be good for all, including but not limited to

a) abortions for any woman or girl  who wants one,

b) all guns banned,

c) no private ownership of anything unless you’re liberal,

d) 100% tax rate for rich people,

e) 0% tax rate for poor people and liberals,

f) voluntary universal mandatory health care,

g) voluntary universal mandatory national service servicing liberals,

h)anything else a liberal can think of.

I was saddened to learn, this morning of the passing of Bill Faith, by way of Michelle…

He died of a heart attack and had been in ill health.

Bill ran the blog Small Town Veteran and founded/contributed to Old War Dogs. I linked to his work many times over the years. He was also a valuable commenter here at mm.com. A Vietnam veteran, Bill was a stalwart defender of our armed forces and, as you can see from his blog, a man who loved his family. He described himself as “Baby boomer, nerdy kid, Viet Nam veteran, engineer, daddy, grandpa. Politically incorrect. Proud anti-idiotarian.” The epigram at the top of his personal blog:

“For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.”

There are so many things I could say at this point, but will not.

Argghhh!, BLACKFIVE, Confederate Yankee and Old War Dogs all have more, of course.

Barack Obama has an approval rating of eighty-three percent, and the undisputed media darling.   Mrs. Pelosi has an approval rating of twenty percent.   That will not stop Mrs. Pelosi from enacting her agenda, not BO’s, Arthur Bruzzone, San Francisco Examiner:

For now, while the Republican Party remains in disarray, President-elect Obama will find his chief adversaries are in his own party. With the House Speaker a primary obstacle to any meaningful change in Washington

Mrs. Pelosi stands athwart most of BO’s goals, econmic recovery, bipartisanship and re-election.   This is a cage march, where only one can win.

I admit that I have not been following the Minnesota Senate contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken too closely.  After all the thought of  joker like Franken in the Senate is just too depressing.   However of late, there been some hopeful commentary about Coleman’s chances, not the least of which is the fact that Dirty Harry Reid has declared that Coleman has lost.    This is the same Dirty Harry who swore never to seat Roland Burris.   Thus, Ron Carey, Town Hall, on “Why Norm Coleman Will Win:”

The reality is Franken’s desperate ploy to get himself seated on the basis of Canvassing Board numbers Minnesota law, the Supreme Court, the Canvassing Board and even Franken’s campaign acknowledge to be inaccurate indicate Franken’s realization that his high water mark has come and gone. Reality is setting in, and the facts will show that Norm Coleman will, in due time, be seated as Minnesota’s United States Senator.

It seems to me that if one consistent standard is applied, then Coleman finds.   Then look at the bright side Al,  you always go back to your day job at Err America.

Schlock is defined as cheap or trashy. If spending less than $160M to inaugurate Obama is cheap, God help us in the next four years.

DRJ, Patterico’s Pontifications.

This is what I was faced with when I left work the other day. My beloved Rainier was covered in snow, and was nearly invisible given the remaining light.

What you don’t see in the picture is the foot of snow covering the entire parking lot, save where they plowed on this side of the truck.  As I came out of the building the guy who runs the snowplow, which is actually a slightly modified payloader, was sitting there idling, waiting for people to leave so he could complete his task.

I had one of two choices that I could make; I could leave the parking lot by taking the route he’s plowed for us, which most people were doing, or I could go straight to my usual exit, through the foot deep snow.

Just to be an annoyance, I did the latter.  The truck, for its part, never noticed. Meantime, the Prius parked in the row in back of the truck, tried to run out for the area that had been plowed, somehow lost control of the thing, and smacked a freshly built up snow bank…. whilst I drove away through the foot deep snow.

It’s moments like that that remind me, why I drive an SUV in the first place.

Editor notes: Originally posted 01/09/06

One of the biggest problems I have in my garden is keeping the squirrels out of my bird feeder. The tehnological war between us and the squirells has gone to insane levels. But, nothing we do keeps them out; eventually, they figure a way around the security systems in place to get at the food. Eventually, I just took down the bird feeder. Darned rodents, anyway.

Even in the human world, security experts will tell you that there is no security system on the face of this planet, that cannot be broken down and bypassed by a determined criminal, no matter how high a wall you put up, no matter how many safeguards you put in place. If somebody’s determined to get by them, they will. Systemic answers to security simply do not work, in the end.

Well, just now, there’s a lot of chatter going around that suggests that the problems in American government that involve corruption can be solved by systemic changes. If we change the system to make it harder for people to commit crimes of corruption, the thinking goes, corruption won’t happen. Put up a bit of barbed wire here, a cone there. Hang the thing from the clothesline, perhaps, and the problems will, top.

This is an argument that seems to be finding a large welcome among the extreme libertarian community and among America’s left wing. By law, we’re told, we can make a better lawmaking process. But it’s not true. Like the squirells and the bird food, they’ll always find a way.

What is needed here is not a systemic change for government, but a role change for government.

British bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked why was the robbed banks. Sutton, of course responded; ” That’s where the money is. ” The squirells wouldn’t bother, either, if there wasn’t food to be had. By the same token, then, we have so much corruption in government these days, because that’s where the power is.

We have a government that has developed over the last 80 or 90 years (mostly under Liberal control) which has appointed itself the guardian and master of every aspect of American life private or public. With that kind of centralization of power there is certain to be some attempt to influence that power in one direction or another on any given topic. No amount of operational rules is going to change that basic fact. No law is going to prevent people from making the attempt and succeeding. The only way to eliminate the corruption in that process is to return the responsibility for all those questions and all those processes back to where they belong; As close to the individual as possible. Yes, I’m talking about handing power back to state and local governments and to (Gasp) the people again.

Think about just one of the many aspects of what the Federal government is taken over in our daily lives of late.. medicine. Before Johnson’s great society we never heard once about millions and millions of dollars being funneled at congressional campaigns by drug companies did we? Today, it’s simply the way it’s done. Then again, back in the day, we did not have government making every decision with regards to what doctor you’re going to see how much you are going to pay, and whether not the government could afford to give you the medicine that you need. You cared for that matter yourself, made those choices yourself.

The fact of the matter is, that corruption and the degree of it that we see in our government is directly connected to how much power the government hands. That’s always been the formula; it’s never going to change.

Changing how government works isn’t the answer. What has to change, is how much we demand of goverment.

Today Bruce over at Q&O tells the story of  CPL Moses Cardenas.

It’s worth the read.

The Messiah has been mocked.

“All of a sudden, ‘Gosh it’s so complicated to close Guantanamo Bay.'”

Dana Perion, as attributed by Kevin Vance, Weekly Standard, via Gateway Pundit and Jammie Wearing Fool

I feel a bit like Rush Limbaugh, who says who could devote three all three hours a day to media bias.    With respect to Geraghty Law that all of BO’s statements come with experation dates, it might be easier to find a promise which BO has not broken.

Unlike the leftosphere, I can remember history prior to January 2001.   George W. Bush campaigned on promise to  bring a new tone and civility to Washington.   He had worked with democrats in Texas and believed that could to the same in Washington.   So  BO’s clarion promise of post-partisan presidency, wasn’t exactly a new idea.    Then the only books BO ever reads the one he had ghost written in his name.   I didn’t believe that Bush could achive a post-partisan presidency, and I know that BO can’t either.   However some on the left may have been tempted to believe BO”s campaign rhetoric.  Megan McArdle, Atlantic:

A few days ago, Obama was promising that 95% of working people would get a tax cut. The House has scaled that back to make it more affordable. It will be interested to see how the burgeoning young professional class that disproportionately supported Obama–the folks who are making good money, but living in expensive cities and still struggling with rent and loans–will take this.

[…]

Mostly, Democrats took their wish lists, called them “stimulus”, and look set to inflict them on the American people in badly done drag.

To badly paraphrase Abraham Lincoln if you call pork stimulus, it still smells like a pig.  BO summed up, Jennifer Rubin, Commentary:

So much for the non-ideologue, the eclectic and bipartisan President-elect. That persona is just for dinner parties. The one who seeks to govern apparently is an unalloyed liberal with little interest in crafting bipartisan, practical legislation. In devising his signature stimulus-piece he set the House Democrats loose and ignored the Republicans.

And for the silver lining, Robert Stacy McCain, American Spectator:

Ah, the yawning gap between Hope and reality! Well, if massive and stupid spending is going to be inflicted on the American people, at least let Democrats do the inflicting, eh?

There can only be one top dog in Washington.  It can either be BO or Mrs. Pelosi..    For one to survive the other must go.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read on the ‘shpere. Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble

A busy Friday. Let’s get to it.

• According to what I’ve seen, O’Hare recorded 20 below zero, this morning.  Here in Western NY,  it got to around 5 above. A bit lower across the I86 corridor, and north along I81 and I87.
• Over at PJM, Mary Madigan writes about protests in NYC that
  

  I thought that if I took out my camera, a person who was apparently trained in community relations would express some interest in politely explaining police actions to the community. As you can see in this video, that’s not what he did. When I asked a few questions about freedom of assembly, he pushed my hand and the camera away and told me to stop recording.

  One organizer from the Silent Majority, who is also affiliated with Gathering of Eagles, said that the police seemed to be harassing pro-Israel and pro-America folks lately. She believed that these pro-Palestinian rallies were defended on site by teams of lawyers. Also, she said, we “know Bloomberg has used CAIR to instruct the police to be ‘sensitive.'” At the recent Gaza war protest in San Francisco, photojournalist Zombie noted the same phenomenon.

  —

  The people who organize these rallies have very little to do with peace and justice. We have known for years that “anti-war” groups like International ANSWER are communist organizations, allied with the Workers World Party and supporters of Kim Jong Il. A protester within the “Break the Siege in Gaza” pen handed me a copy of the Workers World newspaper (“Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite!”).

  We also know that peace and justice groups are funded and supported by the financial and political branch of the Islamist terrorist infrastructure, the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the U.S., the Brotherhood is represented by local fronts like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim American Society (MAS), and the Muslim Students Association (MSA). The MAS regularly asks for donations for ANSWER-sponsored demonstrations. The “Break the Siege in Gaza” demonstration in Times Square was endorsed and populated, not just by these usual suspects, but also by the openly anti-Semitic Al-Awda (Palestine Right to Return) Coalition….

  Well, look;  The most direct answer is that it’s a matter of whom they most fear. I’m reminded of the Star wars saga, which has been on the tube recently It’s early in the saga, and the Wookie, Chewbacca and R2D2 are playing chess.  The robot is clearly winning the game, but Solo advises the robot to be careful about the moves made because wookies are known to rip their opponant’s arm out of it’s socket it they lose.  C3PO says “I suggest a new Strategy, R2… Let the wookie win.”  That’s one advantage, you see, of having a reputation of violence… when you’re angry, people tend to take you seriously.  That’s one thing that’s always amused me about the supposed peace-loving left, who makes out that Israel is the war monger, despite their not being the ones prone to violence with people who disagree with them. . Look at the forms of protest that each side takes. Of the two, which would you say is the more warlike?

• On the other hand, Classical Values asks the question; What happened if the Palastinians gave a protest march and nobody came?
• Israel says the end game is in sight, in Gaza.
•  A first place at OTB’s caption contest for the Boss, and an Honorable Mention for YetAntherJohn. I owe it all to a lack of clean living.
• Boortz notes, today:
  

  A city council in Great Britain is offering workers time off if they get a boob job because it would ‘generate goodwill’ among staff. Yeah, no kidding.

  Heh. No, I don’t know what to say about it either.

•  Another bit of reality seeping through; Obama’s already given the green light to Coal.  Bruce notes some more situations where Obama’s been forced to back away from his election rethoric and step into reality. I can’t help but think there’s going to be a number of leftists who aren’t too happy.  But, it’s as I said to Billy the other day; We have a total of 1500 some odd days when examples of government excess and their results will be spoon fed to us. All we have to do is publicly note their passage, and point to the principles governing them. The most important of them, is the first two years. And Obama, by backing off on most of his election BS, is helping that cause, I think.
• I’ve read Bush’s farewill address. Maybe you should, too.  Here ’tis. I’ll have some extended comments over the weekend.
• Reynolds points to AOL and asks: “WILL GEITHNER’S NOMINATION FAIL because of blowback over Joe the Plumber’s tax lien?”  Ouch. Double standard, indeed.
• I see Boy George finally got jail time.  About bloody time.

From the Bit’s Bog Blog of the Day, “If Global Warming Is Real Then Why Is It Cold”

Hat tip,  Ann Althouse.