Taking Chance

By way of Blackfive:

“Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday.  Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn’t know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.” – LtCol Michael R. Strobl, USMC (Ret.), “Taking Chance”

I included Taking Chance in the Blog of War (Chance is one of the men that the book is dedicated to) and we have followed it’s trajectory until, finally, it will be aired as a movie on HBO on February 21st.  Kevin Bacon will portray LtCol Strobl.

Four and a half years ago, I was asked to post “Taking Chance” by LtCol Michael Strobl.  It evoked one of the strongest reactions on BlackFive that I have seen since starting the blog in mid-2003.  The story also gave me the honor to get to know some of the friends and family and Marine brothers of Chance.

First of all, go and read the above link.
Read the whole story.

Now that you’ve done that, I’ll tell you that I was quite moved by that story back when it was originally posted. I never said anything about it here, because I didn’t think I could add anything to it. Nothing coherent, anyway.

I find out today that the story told in that post at Blackfive is about to become a film.

Here’s the tralier:

It’s due out in February.

I get the feeling it’ll be a while before I’m able to say much at all about it.
I will say Kevin Bacon just went up a notch in my estimation.

And as for Blackfive… a big BBCT from here. THe story wouldn’t have made it out there without your efforts.

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

A mix of rain and snow over the snow that came down last night… sloppy driving today around here. It can’t decide if it wants to rain or snow. Between the snow, the ice and the ponded water, it’s a real treat round these parts to drive.  Sloppy doings in DC as well, and I dunno to laugh or cry. Let’s go….

• Client number 9, otherwise known as former New York Govenor Eliot Spitzer, (I admit it; it feels good to say that…) says he has some problems with Obama’s Stimulus Package.  And we know that Spitzer knows all about using lots of money to have his package stimulated, don’t we?   And “Robots, not roads?” He wants us to use that money for ‘transformative’  things? Typical Democrat… doesn’t know the difference between ‘nice to have’ and ‘needed now’.  No wonder New York is in the financial dumper. And…. Whose good idea was it to get this guy back in the public eye, anyway?  They bloody well deserve each other. Then again, looking at Patterson, not much has changed in that part at least.
• So now, the guy who does the doctoring shtick on CNN.. Sanjay Gupta…  is the Surgeon General?  Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, think abut it. If it’s all for show, all Hollywood, (Or in Gupta’s case, Bollywood)someone who is already in that mold makes sense. And if there’s one thing we know it’s that Obama is all about show and managing his own specticle. Of course, that doesn’t mean all Democrats approve. Krugman, for example. Rotundo Moore, call your office.
• In case you’d like to go, Blago’s staff is holding a seminar… taxpayer funded, of course… on ethics in the workplace.
• Not so fast, Franken… Coleman’s put up the legal challange we thought he would. It’ll be interesting to see this come out the other way.. and I suspect it will.
• About that particular cespool… Harry Reid says “Coleman will never ever serve’.   But wait a tick, Harry; didn’t you say that about any nomination put up by Blago? here’s a news flash…   They’re seating Burris, now.   I’d bet on Harry going two for two on this.
• If anyone needed a clue on how much resentment there is among Democrats, and the kind of power struggles that will result one needs look no father than here. I’d say Harry’s won his last election and knows it… and now the real Harry comes out as a result. The lid’s come off. Next, the wheels.
• Byron York notes this trend toward internal disputes and power struggles among the whole of the Democrat party. Harry’s only part of this deal.
• McQ passes on some politically correct titles.
• He also points up that Jessie MacBeth is back in the world again. Of course he is in typical Democrat style, blaming everyone else for his problems.  This Ain’t Hell also has a bit up on this.
• Ah, to be hanging out at Vail. Not a very impressive sight, particularly given shrinkage. Gotta be cold there, right? How long before he goes on another ski trip, I wonder?
• It’s always interested me, the spectre of Congresscritters calling for the jailing of Bernie Madoff, when it’s Congress, running a  bigger scam called ‘Social Security”. John Stossel takes this idea and runs with it today.
• Every once in a while, Arlen Specter makes himself nearly worth the air he consumes. Apparently, he’s going to be fighting the Holder nomination. Good; Someone should. Here’s his floor statement.
• So, we should be trusting  Ahmadinejad and crazy Uncle Hugo? Better ask the Turks.
• Speaking of Obama and the resentment, he’s gotta be feeling it on Panetta. I begin to wonder if we see his name withdrawn in the next week or so.Wouldn’t shock me to see ol’ Leon under Obama’s Bus with the rest of them.
• I wrote this morning about Obama being linked to the guy at the heart of the investigations into Richardson. Now it appears he’s linked to Blago through money as well. The amount of corruption among the Democrats is nothing short of staggering. Yet it seems all business as usual. Ya know, one of the nonsensical bits that McPain used to cough up is that money in politics was ruining good people, and that thereby the system is broken. If this long line of Democrat corruption revelations shows us anything it’s that McCain got it backwards… It’s bad people ruining a good system. Name that party…
• I wonder if the residents of Spokane think “Global Warming” is the problem.
• Look, Martin.. the larger question is why anyone takes Juan Cole seriously anymore. Not to be confused with John Cole, who also should be ignored, and for the same reasons.

Breaking:

WASHINGTON – The Associated Press has learned Senate Democrats plan to accept Roland Burris for President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant seat.

NBC news reports Burris is meeting with the Senate leadership now as Senate Democrats look for ways to defuse the standoff that has denied Burris a Senate seat.

Dirty Harry as attributed by Bob Cusack et al, Hill:

“If Obama steps over the bounds, I will tell him. … I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him.”

So Dirty Harry, just where are going to put your finger:  Hat tip:   Macsmind.

Jane Hamsher, Fire Dog Lake:

I want to play poker with Harry Reid. Really I do.

Sure Dirty Harry, the mesiah must be really shaking in his boots over your threat not to work with him.

Now, it starts…ABC News is reporting:

President-elect Barack Obama took big money from a man at the center of a federal probe that has forced one of Obama’s top Cabinet picks to withdraw.

Financial records show the Obama campaign got more than $30,000 from California financier David Rubin, the target of an investigation into donations and possible “pay-to-play” deals involving New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama’s pick for commerce secretary.

Scratch a Democrat, and corruption simply leaks out. If they keep digging, this will be an interesting summer. Question is, will they?

I don’t think it is an actual job requirement to be stupid to write for the Boston Globe, but it just might be, Jame Carroll, Boston Globe:

For a brief period, America’s new president will bask in universal goodwill. The Arab world, Muslims generally, and Palestinians in particular, have unprecedented reason to believe they will be heard. Israel can count on Obama’s friendship. The war in Gaza requires him to act boldly and swiftly. If he has political and moral capital, he must begin by spending it there, making sure that such heartbreaking violence stops, for good

So much for Carroll’s alternative universe    Back on the real world, Gateway Pundit:

Pakistani protesters burn a U.S. flag to condemn U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s remarks, Friday, Aug. 3, 2007, in Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistan criticized Obama for saying that, if elected, he might order unilateral military strikes inside this Islamic nation to root out terrorists. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Pakistani officials also blasted Obama for his irresponsible remarks of a unilateral invasion

Threating to bomb one’s country is not a way of generating goodwill.    It does not led to honeymoons and does offer hope new and postive change.   Then anybody with an IQ above that of room tempeature already know that.

Hat tip and more, Eric, Viking Pundit.

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

Holy cow, is there ever a lot going on the last 48 hours around here. Lots of web traffic for lots of different reasons, and lots to talk about. I said a while ago that Obama winning meant we’d have no shortage of subjects to write to, and boy was I ever right. Let’s go:

• I see Andrew Cuomo is polling well above Caroline Kennedy, even among staunch Democrats, for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat.
• So, as I said they would, they blocked Burris at the door? And this despite the weak constitutional case for doing so? Quite a sight, that… Democats blocking a black man’s entering the chamber Can you say “Selma”? I knew you could. Still, though, for sheer hutzpah, there’s nothing of this to compete with Burris himself…
  

  I have never in my life, in all my years of being elected to office, thought anything about race.”

  Yeah, right. I suppose that explains the forthing support of Black Panther Bobby Rush, right? We now better understand what Blgao thought Burris’ qualifications were… he lies smoothly enough.

• I wrote to the farce that is the Leon Panetta appointement as CIA director last night. Jules Crittenden has a decent roundup, so does James Joyner. Reynolds has comments as well. I suspect, aside from what I told you last night,  that this appointment is BDS run amok.
• As I meantioned last night, there’s an awful lot of infighting among Democrats, each in their own little power war. The Wall Street Journal suggests that this could serve to stall the nightmare.
• Boortz is saying Ann Coulter has gotten the boot at NBC.  Drudge says, meanwhile, that NBC seems in conflict about it, though. The stated reason? She’s being Critical of The Chosen One. Nothing new to see here, folks… NBC was unmasked a long long time ago. Move along, Citizen. Nothing to see here. By the way, for those of you who get Neal at Night… (And I think he’s on nights at 1110/WBT in Charlotte) He’s got Ann scheduled for 11am this morning. Meaning, she’ll be on in the final hour in the repeats.
• Before you start giving Obama credit for his supposed tax cuts, you may want to read this from Politico.
• For all the people lined up saying Bush was all about oil company profits, I wonder; have any of them noticed that gas prices are a net down for his two terms in office? I wonder if they’ll let reality over-rule their ranting on the topic. Yeah, I know. I doubt it, too, but I had to ask.  Reynolds laughingly links it to Saddam being gone. Actually, that’s reasonable, but I can’t help but wonder how that’s going to play as more of the Iraqi wells come back online?
• Speaking of which, Crazy Uncle Hugo has decided the poor don’t need his help anymore. Ed Morressy has the details.
• The religion of peace rides again.
• At some point, the global warming freaks are going to go too far. Let’s hope for our sake it’s damned soon.
• A sad note from Scott Fybush; Steve LeVeille, who was doing the overnights on WBZ/1030 and Lovell Dyett, also of WBZ, are going the way of the budget cut. Dyett, whose politics, frankly are abominable, was a regular voice up there, though… nearly 40 years. BZ prided itself on live and local all the time. Brudnoy who died a few years ago now, was a favorite of mine. I grew up listening to Larry Glick, too. Scott reports WBZ is also dropping their unusually large commitment to news, both local and national.  They did both the right way, but they’re finding out the right way is rather expensive.    To my mind, this move  gives Bob Savage (WYSL/1040, Avon, NY) some traction.. Bob’s been in a running fight with the hash WBZ makes of his smaller signal on the channel next door to 1030. At least with the local and rather unique programming, there was a reason for Bob’s signal to suffer under the sheer weight of the mighty BZ. With them going for the syndication at night, there’s no damned reason at all for WYSL to have to deal with the splatter from WBZ’s woefully misnamed IBOC signal. You’ve made a longtime listener very suspicious, WBZ… and a little angry, frankly. I doubt I’m alone.

Barack Obama, a/k/a BO wants bipartisan cover for his Raw Deal, Steven R. Hurst

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama plunged into rare pre-inaugural crisis talks with congressional leaders Monday, declaring the national economy was “bad and getting worse” and embracing tax cuts now expected to reach $300 billion. But he also met with Republicans in an effort to build broad support for quick action.

[…]

“This is not a Republican problem or a Democratic problem at this stage,” he said. “It is an American problem and we’re going to all have to chip in and do what the American people expect.”

He is not going to get it   Mrs. Pelosi didn’t get the memo,  Connie Hair, Human Events:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

Pelosi’s rule changes — which may be voted on today — will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”

Mrs Pelosi will see to it that the recovery, or lack thereof, will be strictly a democrat show.

Bruce McQuain over at Q&O has a piece up called:

Hamas has no desire to negotiate “peace”

The import of that title is manifestly obvious to anyone who’s been watching the situation for any length of time. Bruce raises a couple of points in that general neighborhood:

Let’s be clear about something – while Hamas may not pose a serious threat to the existence of Israel at the moment that doesn’t mean, given the Hamas charter which calls for the destruction of Israel, that it won’t pose a very real future threat.

While true, there’s a problem with this statement; to demonstrate the problem lets postulate together Mexicans lobbing non nuclear weapons into the southern United States.  Let’s further postulate, that they’re not hitting anything in particular , and only in random are any injuries taken.  Does this mean that we do not respond with overwhelming force?  Of course not. It’s not just the future trheat… it’s the current one, as well that needs response.

Further, the issue isn’t the rockets being lobbed in, it’s the attitude of the group that’s doing the attacking.  Regardless of the lack of quality of the weaponry, eventually given their attitude that are going to succeed having something.  To not respond with force is to be seen as exhibiting weakness, and in any event the outcome will be more attacks, until such time as eventually something or someone the value is in fact hit. Getting smacked upside the head tends to alter attitudes. Negotiation usually doesn’t.

Further still, as Bruce suggests that future threat, is very real, particularly when considering the specter of nuclear weaponry being handed them by one of their parents states.  Iran, for example.  The motivations surrounding Iran, I have already discussed here.Bruce says:

At some point, you have to say “enough” and stop the attempts on your citizen’s lives. The fact is, as I pointed out in a post about proportionality, Israel’s response had been quite proportional.

Quite so.  But I think that they’ve done so to their own detriment and the prologation of the war against them.

 Prudence demands a show of overwhelming force. This concept of ‘proportionality’ is one with which I have run out of patience.  As I say over there ;

(cough, Drezden, Nagasaki,Hiroshima, cough)

You see, reality keeps rearing its head.

We waited for about half a decade before responding in that fashion. How long do you propose to hold Israel to your mythical “proportionality”? Do you really think that those seeking to destroy Israel, large chanting death to Israel, and who were seeking nuclear weapons for the specific purpose of a wiping Israel from the face of the map, give a tinkers cuss about your concept of proportionality, except as it benefits them?

It’s time you get out of the notion that this is going to come to some kind of a mutually agreeable end. That civilization is going to have any sway whatsoever over a band of people who insist on remaining in the fourteenth century, and who are, by their own words quite willing to kill 1000 of their own for the purpose of killing one Jew..

If they bring a knife, you bring a gun. That’s the only way to survive, and in reality,  the only way to bring about the quick end to a war. The very reason that their problems have gone on for as long as they have, I suggest, is their ‘proportional’ response, and the dogged insistance on “Negotiation”.

Zbignew Brezinsky  over the weekend issued a comment on one of the talking head shows to the effect that left on their own, Israel and their neighbors would never come to a peace. The thrust of his comment was intended to make the case that the west would have to get involved and broker a peace deal.  The problem of course is that we’ve tried that, already, many times over, which is exactly why we are where we are… no closer to a real peace than we were four decades ago.  Were we to leave Israel and it’s neighbors to work out their differences without getting involved… insisting on a ‘measured’ response, for example, yes, even letting it go to war if it came to it…  the issue would have been settled decades ago, and we’d be lving in peacetime right now… and this conversation wouldn’t be taking place.

I’ll say it again; Peace is not a product of negotiation Negotiation merely postpones or re-directs war.. Peace in reality is a happy side product of actually winning the war waged against you. Our insistance on negotiated settlements which Israel’s neighbors break before the ink is dry, has only served to prolong the war there, and increase the number of dead. It’s the best way I can think of to ensure that the Islamic nutjobs attain the power they seek, thus winning the war for them.

You really have to wonder if that’s not what the proponants of ‘proportional response’ want.

Addendum: (Bit) A reader writes me in feedback:

But what brought all this about now?

Well, that’s an important point… and the answer is, The America election. We go again to my post in the comments section of that thread, in which I adrdress a point Bruce makes:

I suggest their conclusion was that they couldn’t live with, as you say, a government run by a death-cult that continues to attack it…. and which would soon have US support, ala Jimmy Carter/Bill Clinton. … you’ll doubtless recall that Arifat all but had his own office in the White House, for example, while Clinton was busy pounding on Israel for consessions. The added weight of ‘negotation’ as it’s been played out over the years… where the “Palatsinians” use “Negotation” as they would any other weapon.. against their enemy… As I said back in 2001:

“From Oslo to Camp David, Clinton has pushed Israel to the bargaining table, and pressured her to give up vital strategic and cultural assets she has no business giving away, if survival is at all on her agenda. Ehud Barak, by his giving into Bill Clinton (who, along with his staff including Jim Carville, did much to put Barak into office), has done little more than demonstrate just how empty the Palestinians’ peace talk really is, and how desperate Clinton was to be seen as a good President, his crimes against his oaths not withstanding.

Consider….

At Clinton’s insistence, Barak offered Arafat the keys to the kingdom; just about all of the West Bank and Gaza, plus East Jerusalem and even Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount. How do the peace loving Palestinians respond? Yasser Arafat turned it all down, and gave us another few nights of headlines, filled with kids in the street throwing stones, and being shot, occasionally. He also sent his armed forces, (You recall, they’re supposed to be policemen?) to fire at the Israelis, apparently hoping for an excuse to tell the rest of the world how Israel is a war-mongering nation.

Of course that should have been a signal to about anyone with a brain that he didn’t give a damn about peace. All he and his followers are interested in is the destruction of Israel. It should have also been a signal that Clinton’s attempt at a legacy backfired, big time, and more, that it didn’t have a chance to start with…. something that Clinton should have known, did he have any understanding of the situation at all.

What I’m suggesting is that Israel saw all of that developing against them all over again, and reacted accordingly.

And, I’ll add at this point, correctly.

John Hawkins, Right Wing News, has up his “The 7th Annual “20 Most Annoying Liberals Of 2008.” 

 * I quibble with John number one, but do note that his award hinges on one Patrick Appel, who I blogged about last month.

On the other paw, I do very much approve of John’s choice of eye candy.

*Individuals who are best used for sport are not serious enough to be considered annoying.

If there is any indication that the Barack Obama and his foreign policy and homeland security efforts simply cannot be taken seriously it is the appointment of Leon Panetta as the director of the CIA.

Mr. Obama owes the American people an explanation, not that I think they’re going to get one.

Namely,  he should explain to us  how Mr. Panetta, who is after all nothing more than a former congressman and lobbyist… and it should be said, he wasn’t very good in either role… could possibly do a better job than any of the people currently in the CIA… including the guy whose job it is to polish the spittoons. Personally,  I have no idea other than Panetta is a good political operative.

That factor, tells us the story, perhaps that makes the most sense.  Clearly, what this appointment shows us is that if anything Mr. Obama fears the CIA.  This kind of political appointment usually ends up involving a micro- manager.  Leon Panetta, with a long history of bureaucratese behind him, will certainly feel comfortable in that particular role.  But frankly, I fail to understand how having a political loyalist in that role helps the CIA benefit these United States.  Indeed, it seems to me more damaging than helpful. It may help Obama, politically, but that seems to me another matter altogether.

There is one other thing that this appointment does; it brings Bill Clinton’s chief of staff into the picture. and as with earlier today when observing Mr. Obama’s choice for deputy attorney general, I am forced to ask how bringing in more Clintonistas constitutes “change”?

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Senator Dianne Feinstein who this week is beginning her run as chair of the senate intelligence committee wasn’t consulted on the choice and indicated that she might oppose it.  Here’s the quote, and it’s a stunner:

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” Feinstein said. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

This is not exactly a ringing endorsement, particularly when you consider that Feinstein has not been  lost for words in recent memory.  Under normal circumstances, I would rather saw off my own arm with a rusty blade than agree with Dianne Feinstein.  These are far from normal circumstances; she’s right. That is what’s needed at that posted this point, and Panetta by any measure doesn’t qualify as such.

If you’re going to appoint a Clintonista to the role on account of their political loyalty, wouldn’t you be better off with Sandy Berger?  He, at least, has some field ops experience… and likely the document- smuggling pants still fit.

Seriously… There is something about this appointment, that simply stinks.  There is something completely wrong about it.

My problem, you see, is that I can’t make any logical sense out of it.  Then again, when I attribute logic to a CIA director, I am factoring in  all the usual reasons about being concerned about the smooth running of the CIA, or homeland security, or foreign policy, or any one of the number of things that the CIA is usually involved with.  Since this appointment doesn’t make any sense in any of those contexts,  I am forced to conclude that there is some other reason,  which we are not being told of, that drove this particular appointment.

Given the lack of trust that Mr. Obama has engendered these last several months,  one cannot get over the feeling that whatever it is that’s making that horrible smell, it can’t be very good.

Has anybody ever accused Dirty Harry Reid of being smart?    I have not.  Apparently Roland Burris appointment by indited Illinois Governor  Rod Blagoveich might not be so tainted after all.    Dirty Harry is apparently considering letting Burris have his Senate seat for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do whether Burris’s appoint was as taint or not, Dana Bash:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – CNN has learned that one possible compromise idea being considered by some in the Senate Democratic leadership is allowing Roland Burris to be seated in the Senate as long as he agrees not to run in 2010. 

Roland Burris’ interest, or lack of same, in running  for the seat in 2010 has absolutely nothing to with the question of his being tainted by Blago, or his constitutional fitness to serve.   Dirty Harry is merely playing politics and his playing like an old punch drunk amatuer boxer.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read on the ‘shere… Bit’sBlog’s Nightly Ramble

First regular ramble of the New Year, and so much going on, I don’t know as I can fir it all in… but I’ll try.

• Boy, you would have thought that somebody had set off a bomb around here the way the ground has been shaking after I posted the story about Hillary Clinton and the Syracuse developer of the Carousel Mall, there in Syracuse.    I didn’t say much, yesterday when I posted it, but it blows my mind completely away that the New York Times is daring to put anything in the paper that puts Hillary Clinton in less than favorable light.  Congel and his money appropriation act as long been a topic of discussion amongst upstate New York political watchman.  I do have to wonder what brought this to the fore, just now.
• I mean, it’s not like the Democrats don’t already have a number of things already on their plate, with the Franken election stealing, the Charlie Rangel and his criminality, the William Jefferson money stealing,  the Barney Frank gross mismanagement, the Christopher Dodd behavior issues, Chuckles Schumer crashing Indy Bank,and so on. The only reason that it’s not getting more than the substantial attention it already has been getting, is because the Democrats have presented themselves as such a target-rich environment already.
•  Now, it seems that we can add Bill Richardson to the list of scandals .  Seems he’s withdrawn his name from consideration for commerce Secretary in the new Obama administration.  Word is, those oddball business dealings we’d spoken of here a few weeks ago, have finally hit somebody’s desk.  Obama has a number of problems to deal with, and frankly one gets the impression that the problems of the world are not exactly going to be a priority, so greater the political problems within his own party.  And the funny part is, he’s not even sworn in yet.  Forget about passing the popcorn, this one’s got so many features to it we’re gonna need pizza and wings and, oh, God, yes… we need beer.
• Oh… speaking of Schumer and Indy Bank, American Thinker says George Soros is buying up Indy Bank... or what’s left of it.  Tell me again, how this wasn’t the plan all along, when Schumer tipped the scales on the place.  And how much, we wonder, did Soros invest in Schumer’s last election?
• Speaking of Franken, he will likely be labled the winner up there. Apparently they’ve got enough votes to get the Democrat in, so they’ll stop counting now. Yeah, that’s fair, huh? Well, assuming Coleman doesn’t try legal action, which he may do within the next week or so. Jonah certainly seems to think he will.
• Here’s some more on that Habitat for Humanity story I ran yesterday.
• It’s rather hard for Hamas to claim victim status on the world stage when they’ve been chucking rockets… over 1000 of them, into Israel, during what was ostensibly a cease fire. And then there’s Iran, who has been busy feeding Hamas. Let’s do some what it thinking; What if Iran was to get nukes? Iran has a lot of things, but they’re not outright stupid. They’re not going to launch a nuclear attack against Israel. For one thing, even assuming they had the bomb, they don’t have the  rocketry to get it there reliably. But more, they know as well as you and I do the immediate response to such an attack, successful or not, would be turning Iran into a glass recycling center.Meanwhile, the Palestinians have in reality been nobody’s friend for a long time now. Iran has shown no problem whatsoever with using them for cannon fodder. Given possession of even low-level nukes, then, Iran would more probably therefore provide said low level nuclear weaponry to the Palestinians for their use against Israel, instead of using them, themselves. Of course,  the response there, too, would be that all of the facade of civilization would melt away, with Israel responding appropriately, basically wiping out Gaza. Thus, eliminating not one problem for the Iranians, but two. Sure, it’s cold, but there it is. And, no, I wouldn’t put it past either one… and I think barring major changes, we’re going to play this current game until the one I’ve just described to you, unfolds.  The real game changer, here, and the one that will keep peace in the region longest,  is to cripple the Palastinians… and their ability to make war on Israel…  now.
• Speaking of the Palastinians, message to David Bernstein of Volokh; You don’t really expect Greenwald to say the truth of the matter, do you really?  I halfway expected him to blame “Wilson” or “Ellison” for his lie.  David and I have attacked him and his sock puppets often enough before, but not today. Better to read Rick Moran on the point today… ol’ Rick minces not word one with this idiot.  So good a job does Rick do, in fact, that I’m not even going to add my two cents this time.
• Blago/Burris/Reid…..(Harry, Bar the door!)  I begin to suspect that what we’re going to see there in the end is a move to put Jesse Jackson Jr… (number 5?) in the Senator’s chair. Think about this, now;  The real objection on the part of at least some was that whoever got named by Blago would be tainted.  Burris may or may not win out, here, but if he does or doesn’t, Jackson is still in the clear, pretty much, assuming his name doesn’t come up too often in dealings with Blago in the upcoming trial. Apparently Harry Reid told Blago exactly that. And yes, the race card plays heavy on all of this as Reid is now finding out. Reid gets to play the racial heavy, no matter how this falls out… and it gets worse if he tries to expell Burris.  Given the numbers he’s getting in his home district, my guess is Harry’s out the end of this term anyway, and knows it, and so doesn’t much care what it costs him politically. Quite a show the Democrats are putting on, no?
• Bizzaro-world… Obama’s consdiering a $310 BUSD tax cut? Yeah, I can imagine the reaction that’ll draw from the left. I guess it’s about offset, politically, by the 600,000 new federal employees he’s planning on. Greg Mankew examines the ‘Middle Class Tax cut” claim, and not unexpectedly finds it wanting.
• Glenn notes a pattern of Firebomb attacks against GOP targets. the difference between these and Bill Clinton’s memory of black church firebombng is that we have physical evidence of the anti-GOP attacks.
• I see Steve Jobs is being treated for some kind of nutritional disorder. Gee, wasn’t it just a while ago, that Jobs was touting the virtues of not eating meat?  Guess what area of his diet is problematic?  Yep.. Protein. Do the math, Kids…

Regular readers will be interested to know that I’ve got a post up over at Pajamas Media on the Hillary Clinton Play for Pay thing.

I’m getting chatter just now from a few sources, including Byron York that David Ogden, Janet Reno’s s former Chief of Staff is abut to be named our next Deputy Attorney General.

(Shaking head in disbelief)

Can someone please tell me, exactly, how this constitutes “Change”?

Top of the Ticket:

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his name as Commerce Secretary-designate this afternoon for the new administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

With an almost audible sigh of relief barely two weeks before his inauguration Obama, in a printed statement that won’t provide archival video footage, said he accepted the resignation-before-actually-taking-office “with deep regret.”

And 16 days before becoming president, Obama sought to turn the PR smudge and federal probe of Richardson, his first Latino Cabinet pick, and his government into a patriotic plus: “It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet in order to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time.”

It may also be a measure of the inadequacy of the new Obama administration’s vetting process that it somehow missed or ignored the ongoing and widely-reported grand jury testimony over alleged incidents in 2004 in New Mexico, part of a broad federal investigation of selling state services. It would seem to be an obvious something for the experienced Richardson to include when completing the 63-page questionaire given to potential Obama appointees.

That’s Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times. Frankly, I think he underestimates the issue.  At least, he seems to be doing so in public.

Let’s face it; There’s no way that this issue centers around a questionnaire, however answered, and  regardless of how many pages happen to be attached to it.   There’s no way on God’s green earth that Obama and his administration didn’t know that there was a problem surrounding Mr. Richardson, just as they knew there were problems surrounding Hillary Clinton. We must assume Obama and his people knew that there was a problem, but ignored it.
The only other option that we have, is to believe that Obama and his people really are that stupid, and that disconnected,  and that they really didn’t know what the press have been reporting for months about Richardson.  Not only is that not particularly complimentary, but it also doesn’t mesh with the personality we’ve seen of Obama these last two years.  Obama is driven as much by news and public opinion as he is by anything in his life.  His decisions are driven as much by the finger gauge as anything.  As such, it defies belief that nobody on Team Obama knew what was up with these two.  In both cases, in that of Bill Richardson, and in the case of Hillary Clinton, (and, we suspect, more besides, to be revealed soon) they ignored these problems, thinking that they could get away with them, if only everyone just remained quiet about them.

As it is now, with these problems so exposed, Mr. Obama is now about trying to get himself positioned in front of the howling Lynch mob  so as to make it look like it’s a parade that he’s leading.  This is a quality that we noted several times over the years in Bill Clinton. Frankly, it is not surprising at all to find that same quality in Mr. Obama.

Apparently, the lesson to take away from all of this, is that this is the kind of “leadership” we’re going to be exposed to for the next four years.

And the guy’s not even sworn in yet.