Breakfast Scramble

McCain-Palin had Joe the Plumber.  Now Bitsblog debuts Mike the Electrical. Comments by, or about Mike as transcribed by yours truly:

• Politics in Chicago is morally bankrupt.
• Bring back “Cowboy Capitalism”
• Textile Industry never got a bailout.
• Small business never gets a bailout.
• Solution for GMC and Chrysler – Chapter 11
• Cut import taxes.
• Mike does not agree with Bush on bailing out the Detroit auto industry.
• He pro-supply side.

Got into a conversation with Mike at breakfast.   I know he was Mike because that was the name on his jacket.   I knew was a union electrical worker, because Mike showed me the back of his jacket.     Mike had written comments on the front of the fish wrapper.   I borrowed the fish wrapper to write this post.

We need to invade Michigan and rebuild the state from the ground up. We will be greeted as liberators, we have clear supply lines, and we can easily rebuild the auto industry with the kind of money we spend on other countries we invade. Hell, our new Secretary of State, Hillary of Clinton, spent the better part of the past year fighting for the rights of average folks from Michigan, so think of the good will we have with the public. This is very doable. Just tell Congress we will give KBR no-bid contracts to fix Detroit

Juan Cole, Balloon Juice.

Hat tip:  Jules Crittenden.

Shameful of me… I stuck this into a ‘holding’ pile… our of sight, out of mind.

Sunset, Lake Erie State Park, 2008

Josef Velena in feedback, about a week or so back:

Hi, I just wanted to tell you about a new site that I am working on: http://www.recreationparks.net/

Using USGS data, I’ve added records for over 60,000 parks.  Here is the link for a park you have written about – Lake Erie State Park: http://www.recreationparks.net/NY/chautauqua/lake-erie-state-park-brocton

If you like the site, it would be really cool if you could mention it in your blog.  I think your other readers would find it useful, and the more people who fill out the activity information about local parks, the more comprehensive the site will be.  I would also love any suggestions that you have for new features for the site!

I’ve seen the site, it’s a nice effort, worth a look, particularly if you’re an RV’er.  I’m sure Josef would be interested in your comments as well.

Let’s start, with a premise:

Every Republican president candidate since 1964 has had their level of success or failure, respectively, tied directly to the degree of voter perception that they have or have not turned their back on conservatism.

Consider the history of the thing… and it all flows one way:

• Nixon billed himself a conservative, and successfully, even though in most respects he was a California Moderate, and came down more or less where  John McCain was in the most recent election; to the left of George W Bush.  Yet, Nixon had an electoral landslide in both elections. (Admittedly, the Democrats he ran against were a laughable lot, which didn’t hurt him.)
• Bush 41 figured if he bent over forward enough, the left would like him.   Remember he was doing what the Democrats asked him to do, re; the ‘no new taxes’ pledge? How did they respond? By beating him over the head with the fact that he did what they asked. The voters did the same, seeing clearly that he had broken faith with the American people.
• Bush 43 did the same thing on different matters. Both the father and the son are at best, centrists and far too willing to ‘reach across the aisle’. The result, of course, was quite predictable.
• Jiohn McCain was in fact more of Bush policy, but not as Billed by the Democrats… far from a real conservative, McCain got too deep into go along to get along. His Gang of seven, or gang of 14 or whetever the number was, had less than conservative overtones to it.  His conservatism was properly brought into question thereby.  His hobnobbing with Laraza didn’t help that perception, either. Nor did McCain’s reaction to the Bailout,, which he should have bitterly… and loudly… opposed.

You’ll be hearding a lot about Nixon tehse next few weeks from mental midet Ron Howard.  Despite the picture Howard paints, Nixon wasn’t paranoid, people. It was that they were out to get him. Seriously. The conduct of the Democrats in every Republican presidency since Nixon, shows the same pattern as what he feared would happen to him.  History since that time shows Nixon’s fears were more than justified.

Nixon’s reaction to the threat was of course unacceptable.  Yet, so too was the reaction of these more recent examples.  Watergate, and the surrounding scandals,  was a goldmine for the left, because it pushed Republicns into a decades long situation of trying to ‘get along’ with Democrats. To ‘compromise’ with them. Each time Republicans have been so convinced, it’s been a bloody trainwreck for Republicans and for the nation as a whole.

As a result of that ‘compromise’, all of the rest.. in every case, had their @$$3$ handed them in a basket by Democrats who clearly saw the attempt at compromise, not as an opportunity for bipartisanship (Which apparenly they’re only interested in when they’re losing) but as a weakness. The history of the thing shows us quite clearly, that Republicans leaning left does not mean Democrats will be  hating them less.   Just as clearly, the lesson still hasn’t been learned. I see Kondrake inrecent columns, still making noises that the Republicans have not leaned far enough left yet to be elected.

I submit that post-Nixon ‘moderates’ are the ones who put together this most recent electoral trainwreck.  Their typical ploy; move to the left as  far as they can,  attempt to get the Republicans to look like Democrats as much as possible, then blame the conservative voter when the trainwreck does what trainwrecks do.

It should surprise absolutely nobody liberal Democrats were quite eager to assist in pushing the Republican party to the left.  Perhaps you don’t recall, but McCain’s candidacy was helped by large numbers of Democrats who crossed over during the Republican primary season to push John McCain’s candidacy over the top.  These same voters, of course, crossed over yet again to vote for Barack Obama in the general election, always having intneded to vote for whomever the Democrats offered.   And of course, these liberal Democrats are now joining the RINO contingent in blaming conservative Republicans for McCain’s loss.

It doesn’t require a great deal of thought, though, to look at this most recent nonelection and draw up many parallels between it and the candidacy of Senator Bob Dole.  I think it no secret, that what really happened in that election was that the Republicans, particularly the leadership, were dragged into believing that denying their party strengths while wallowing in its liabilities was a path to victory.

Of course, once the Democrats got themselves into power, the priorities that they were supposedly elected on changed rather rapidly.  All of the campaign promises forgotten, the hundred day programs disregarded, the wishes of the American people ignored.

The left, you see, has a habit of bending the electorate to its will.  All through the 1992 election, we were told by Bill Clinton and his spokespeople, that it was ‘all about the economy, stupid’.  Yes it is Bill Clinton get into office, those tax cuts that he had promised, disappeared like a fishing shack in the middle of Katrina to the Democrats upon achieving power, told us that the election was all about abortion.  Apparently he economy didn’t matter quite so much anymore, once they saw a chance to move toward the core values of the far left. Clinton, for all of his faults, had an advantage on the Republicans in that he never forgot what his party’s core values were about. I suspect we’re going to see that in an Obama administration, as well. For all of the imagry trying to project Obama as a ‘moderate’, I think we’re going to find that Obama is just another corrupt far-leftie with delousions of Godhood. The Chicago connections that the press is only now starting to pay attention to lend themselves to that conclusion well, I fear.

I’m going to tell you something, here.  I’ve been watching political events for 35 years now.  And, longer.  Over that period of time the success or failure of Republican presidential candidates, and it must be said, congressional candidates, are directly linked to how conservative they are perceived by the electorate to be.  In the first example, of course is Ronald Reagan who without a doubt in my mind was the most successful.  It is also why John McCain trying to link himself to Reagan’s legacy, is so laughable.  Sorry, Nancy, you blew that one.  On the far side of that coin, is Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, and yes, John McCain.

Which brings us to the father and son team of Messrs. Bush.  Bush 41 managed to make it into the White House as Reagan’s VP candidate, essentially writing his coattails, but not as a conservative.  As I keep saying in these spaces, Bush 41 was no conservative; he was at best a centrist.  Indeed, he was brought onto the Reagan ticket to balance the perception that Reagan was an extreme conservative. most conservative voters, figured he wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t bad, until such time as the Democrats talked them into compromising his taxes pledge, and then ended his presidency and gave us the Clintons.

Similarly, Bush 43 came in waving not the flag of conservatism, but the flag of compromise.  Given the choice of the radicalism of Al Gore, and the 50-50 chance that Bush might actually have a conservative viewpoint, the voters to the 50-50 chance.

So along comes John McCain, who has a long history of coming down the left of either Bush or for that matter of Reagan, and the voters reaction is quite predictable.  Bye-bye McCain presidency.

And let’s, before we forget,  note the role of Sarah Palin in all of this. Palin was brought on as a conservative.  The intent was to balance McCains …. well, McCain’s liberalism.  Sorry, there’s no other word for it. now the liberals will tell you that the American voter found her brand of conservatism troublesome.  They will tell you that that’s why John McCain wasn’t elected. Of course it’s not true.  Look at the reactions that she got on the campaign trail.  She was drawing larger crowds than John McCain was.

You see, when real conservatives connect with the voters, they bring out what the liberals most fear; grassroots conservatism.  And they bring it out in numbers that give us electoral majorities such as what brought us to terms of Ronald Reagan and congressional power in 1994.

The history of the last 40 years shows us the path to victory.  We ignored it in this election, and we paid the price.   I submit to you that it is time for the Republican Party to reconnect with its grassroots conservative leanings, and to eliminate the leadership that has been trying for decades to disconnect us from that grassroots effort.  Those grassroots values.

I warn you; if the Republican Party tries to offer the electorate another warmed over liberal, falsely flying Republican Party colors, we stand no chance whatsoever at limiting Obama’s time in office to four years, no matter how corrupt he proves to be… (and with Blago, he’s already got a head start.).  Nor do we stand a chance at retaking Congress, no matter how crooked they end up exposing themselves to be.  (Rangel, Jefferson, etc)  It’s time for GOP leadership that understands this.

Now’s the time to get such leadership into place and working for us…  Someone, or better a group of someones, willing to lead Republicans to go back to the values of Conservatism… strong and uncompromising conservatism.. a leader willing to fight tooth and nail for those values… because if we can take the most recent cycle as any kind of indication, we don’t have much time.

We’re running on WordPress 2.7 now. All seems fine.

Update:(Bit)

I do have to say, the thing is running a lot faster, particularly the author’s dashboard, though I miss the way the CrazyHorse interface worked. I guess it’s like anything else, ya gotta get used to it.

So who is tougher, a veteran of the rough and tumble world of Chicago politics or a mother of five, and state governor, from Alaska?   Michelle reports that BO’s chief of staff:

Rahm Emanuel can’t stand the heat

Frankly, Emmanuel’s reaction is not quite what I expected from the man considered by those, even in rough and tumble Chicago, to be so tough that he earned the nickname Rahmbo. The press has been after him for what – two or three days now?

Since being named by John McCain as his running mate three months ago, Sarah Palin has been subject to the sort of media scrutiny that makes the spotlight that has been turned on Emmanuel for a few days pale in comparison

Not only do our politicians have better smiles,  they are tougher.   No word if Miss Andrea Sullivan wants to dig into Emmanuel.

Welcome, one and all to the most intnse nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere; Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble

Lots going on today, most of it predictable, most of it was avoidable. Let’s get to it:w

• The value of Oil has dropped $100/BBL from it’s $147/BBL high in midsummer. All pretty much on the scedule we laid out here last June.
• I caught some feedback from the “Bailout” post I ran this morning. Most in agreement, some not. I’ll touch on it this subject again this weekend, I think. But here’s one more thing we didn’t know about that got slipped into the bailout bill by Harry Reid; a pay raise for federal judges. Did you know about that? Funny how it never gott mentioned.  BBCT Boortz, who also notes CONngress is gettinga  $5000 raise come January first, while the rest of us are out looking for work. Guess to keep my family fed, I’ll have to get a government job.
• That perception is not damaged when Glenn reminds us that the Dodd/Countrywide thing is still out there. 
• On the case of Obama’s buddy, Blago, I’ve not been able to find anything new from the overnight hours. I gather that’s mostly because the Democrats aren’t saying anything about it.  Word this morning is now that, Obama’s claims to the contrary not withstanding, his team WAS in fact talking to Blago about the seat. In fact, word is the contact is Rahm Emanuel. Given the relationship those two have I find it nigh on impossible… chances near zero.. that Obama knew nothing about this.  You can understand that for the Democrats right now, silence is survival.  I’m not overly worried. We’ll get to the truth. Perhaps someone tossing a scandal list together would add to the pressure? I wonder if that’s why the MSM hasn’t touched the idea, yet. However that plays out, Obama and his people have been lying to us, that much is clear. For all the bedwetting going on for years about getting Rove Frog-marched out of the White House, it’s starting to look like the first thing to happen to the Obama administration, will be having his Chief of staff frog marched, possibly before he even GETS to his White House office. Ya know, I oughta write up a list of Democrats who have been caught in scandals recently. I’ve not seen any of the Dinosaur media start totalling this stuff up, (No, I guess I wouldn’t expect them to expose their own) but I’m willing to bet it’s staggering.
• Well, maybe there is one other thing. I see Jackson is running a  fundraiser for Blago. I asked a few days ago, in reference to Blago naming someone to fill Obama’s senate seat, wondering who would accept such a tainted appointment. Guess that question’s been answered, huh? I wonder if calling in an airstrike on the fundraiser isn’t out of the question?
• Oh… and there’s this, too… in one of the funnier moments of my day, I note Dan Rostenkowski leaping to the defense of Blago. Gee, Dan… of all the situations for you to sound off about I wouldn’t have thought you so disconnected mentally as to leap into this one. And the first line here is a classic:
  

  During my career as a public official, I always tried to steer away from the minority of my colleagues who viewed public service as a potential commercial enterprise.

  Yeah, Dan, sure. Did you clear this op-ed with your parole officer? By the way, for those who have forgotten, he used to run the House Ways and Means committee. The Democrat got drummed out on the House and sentenced to 17 months in prison over the Post Office Scandal… the one that put the republicans into the Congressional drivers seat in 1994. You’ll recall also, perhaps he was pardoned by Bubba.  Let’s see… who is running Ways and Means  now?  Oh, yeah. Charlie Rangel, another Democrat up to his pipicks in another series of ethics probes.   There seems a pattern here. Maybe we should run the 1994 play again? And I wonder; is Rangel hoping Obama will Pardon him, too?

• Message to Bill McInturff: Yes, it would have worked; though I wonder if we’d be any better off it it had.
• Barney Frank finally admits it:
  

  Propping up ailing car companies is not what the government’s bailout for Detroit’s car makers is really about, says the man in the middle of the controversial plan. Barney Frank (D-Ma.), chair of the House Financial Services Committee, insists it is about the individual – saying the government needs to help the people in the car companies and other firms tied to the failing industry.

  Translation: this is abut Unions, not jobs. Remember, gang, it’s the unions that keep people like Frank in office. Who’s going to do that when union members, who lose their jobs when the plants go belly, can no longer pay to keep him there, I wonder?

•  Hey, Billy, you’re not the only one… Jonah’s getting a  cat, too. Following your lead, I wonder?
• Meanwhile, I think he deserves a swift kick in the sitting device., does Jonah.
• Backups are in, minor updates are in. Depending on traffic and on home life,  I may do the WordPress updates tonight, instead of Saturday. We’ll see.
• Third place for me, Honorable mention for YetAnotherJohn at OTB’s caption contest.
• Only another week or so to get your Christmas shopping in.  Less, if you’re doing it online. Speaking of which, I gotta go. See you Monday for another Nightly Ramble. Have a great weekend.

Michael O’Brien, Hill, reported that  Jennifer Granholm(D – Canada ) has called Senate Majority Leader Dirty Harry Reid (D-NV) Un-American:

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) said it was “un-American” for senators to have voted against approving a bailout of troubled automakers last night, saying their vote may cause a recession to become a depression.

“It is unacceptable for this un-American, frankly, behavior of these U.S. senators to cause this country to go from a recession into a depression,” Granholm said during a radio interview Friday morning

Dirty Harry, like three of his fellow ‘rats and UAW bailout bill.   Good job Dirty Harry.

As for Granholm, I think Bit should send her a sharply worded note of protest.

Hat tip;  John McCormack, Weekly Standard.

Let’s demand that Obama follow Bush’ example and demand that his staff all cooperate fully with Fitz

Clarice Feldman, via Tom Maguire Just One Minute.

Rod Blagojevich’s conduit into the Office of the President Elect has been identified.   Less than surprising is that he from the same cesspool as Blago and BO, the PRI(People’s Republic of Illinois).    The conduit’s name Rahm Emanuel, soon to  BO’s former chief of staff.   Gateway Pundit has the details.

You know, there are some things I can’t get my mind around. A pinup, for example, at age 85.

OK, she hasn’t done any of that in years, I know. And we’re all headed in the same direction, I know that too.  So what am I on about? Well, the holidays are coming up, so I suppose I can use this as an analogy to explain myself;

Remember that cute kid your brother and his wife had? Remember… wasn’t it just a few years ago come Christmas, you held him, and fed him, and snuggled him while he blew formula all over your brand new Christmas sweater? Cute kid. Well, that cute kid is now 25, has a wife and a kid of his own. But you’ll always, no matter how old each of you gets, picture him as the kid with the bottle in his moosh.

It’s with that sense of disbelief and disconnection, that I pass along reports that Bettie Page has died. Yes, at age 85.

If you don’t know who she was, you might want to research the name.

The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON — A frantic, last-ditch attempt to forge a relief package for the auto industry collapsed in the U.S. Senate, dealing a giant blow to the immediate hopes of the Big Three.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada suggested the $14 billion wouldn’t be revisited until January. “It’s over with,” he said.

The talks, which appeared close to a deal several times, broke off due to a sharp partisan dispute over the wages paid to workers at the manufacturing giants.

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, which have said they can’t last the year without federal aid, both hope the White House will now relent and allow the Treasury to provide emergency loans from the $700 billion Wall Street fund, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Reid also urged that option.

Won’t last until the end of the year? Why? Hold ‘da phone. Bruce over at Q&O points up an article at Forbes:

It seems that the stench is finally getting some attention:

Why is Cerberus, one of the world’s richest private equity firms, begging for a bailout?

When I wrote about the bailout blunders of the auto industry two weeks ago, I thought the Big Three had most likely topped out on the political outrage meter. But that was before the shady story of Cerberus, the uber-connected private equity firm that owns Chrysler, reared its three ugly heads over the weekend.

Buried on the business page of The New York Times Saturday were the details of Detroit’s biggest snow job yet—literally as well as figuratively. Turns out that Cerberus CEO John Snow, who spent three-and-a-half lackluster, and some might say lap-doggish, years as President Bush’s second Treasury secretary, is leading a who’s who of crony capitalists in a lobbying campaign for a taxpayer bailout to “salvage Cerberus’ investment in Chrysler.”

That’s right. Not to save the jobs of Chrysler employees or America’s disappearing manufacturing base, mind you, but to prevent “one of the world’s richest and most secretive private investment companies” from having to take a relatively modest financial hit and use some of its own capital to prop up the smallest of the major automakers.

There’s a lot more at the link, so RTWT.

Of course, the focus on Cerberus does not mean that Chrysler is singularly unworthy of taxpayer funds. Chrysler has a bountiful source of funds available to it, so it simply has no need to go begging for our money.

He also points to GM, syaing their busienss model is unsustainable:

GM is unworthy for the following reason [HT: HAHL]:

December 10, 2008 Stat of the Day

In 2007, Toyota sold 9.37 million vehicles.

In 2007, General Motors sold 9.37 million vehicles.

In 2007, Toyota made $17.1 billion.

In 2007, General Motors lost $38.7 billion.

(Source: Mises Blog)

That’s right. For the same volume of cars sold, GM managed to run into the red $38.7 Billion while Toyota earned over $17 Billion in profit.

And guess where that extra money problem comes from?

That’s right… Unions.

As I’ve said, no bailouts until the model changes by the Unions and their demands disappear.

The Republicans are actually standing up and being counted for the first time in years, and it’s good to see. More, they are doing so on an issue where the vast majority is on their side. The polling numbers are still saying the people figure a bailout is a bad idea. A little hard for Democrats to argue that the people don’t know what they’re talking about when they just handed the Democrats an election, but you watch… if the polling data comes up in conversation, someone somewhere’s going to make that argument.

Addendum:(Bit, an hour and a drive into work later)

Look again at that WSJ article:

The collapse of the deal raises the stakes for Chrysler and its majority owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP. Lawmakers had called for Cerberus to put more money into the company, but Cerberus maintains it can’t because the bylaw of its investment funds prevents it from putting more than a small percentage of its investors’ funds into any single investment.

Nice Dodge… you should pardon the pun.  The Corner’s Andy McCarthy notes this point and says:

So Chrysler’s owners say, “You’re nuts if you think we’re going to throw our money at our loser business model” — they sit on their own wallets, play chicken with their workers and creditors, and expect the idiot taxpayers to say, “No prob — we’ll pony up for you.” 

Indeed. But you know there’s an issue we’ve all been dancing around here, and I think it’s the one that really cuts to the heart of all of this.

The reason that we’re in this situation is the unfunded mandate. No, I’m serious about this. Consider it’s implications.

Usually, when you hear of an ‘unfunded mandate’ it’s a local town or city government bitching up a blue streak about money it’s being required to spend to satisfy some law or another from either the state or federal government. Usually, it’s some state program the state didn’t have money to cover, so the legislators decided to force the local governments to pay for their brain child.  What happens when the local governments have to raise taxes to pay for all this? They, and not the state, or federal goervenment, gets the blame for the spending.

Well, if you think on this for very long, that’s what’s been happening with American industry for too many years… and the leading edge of that has been US auto makers.  Requirements for (Insert some lawmakers supposedly good idea here… ) add in OSHA, add in the government backed union demands (Which in reality is what killed off this bailout bill.. the Unions, true to form, wouldn’t take a reasonable pay and bennie cut) and you have automakers on life support.

And of course we hear those in government and the unions blaming the car makers who have all these financial obligations imposed on them by the government, and the unions, when the very reason their current situation is unsustainable is because of the government and the unions. It’s really that simple. If the car companies deserve any blame it’s for going along with this nonsense for as long as they have. Of course it was that or go out of business. But because of government and unions, that’s what it’s come to.

Am I suggesting we go ahead with the bailout on this factor? No, because that will merely hide the problem for a little while. Government needs to back off on Regulations and from laws using the force of government to back Union demands. A bailout isn’t going to solve that issue.

What I’m suggesting is we need to publicly and properly identify the cause of this meltdown… Government and unions… and react accordingly.  Given who is running our government just now, how much of a chance do you suppose we have of seeing that happen?

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

First, an announcement:

As I suggested a few days ago, WordPress 2.7 is out. I’ll be running the upgrades this weekend, most likely on Saturday. That will give me the chance to get a good backup of the site to tape, and all the safety stuff I usually do before an upgrade taken care of, on Friday. Mostly, I’m doing it taht way because I already had the automatics scheduled to do that Friday night.  Now, for the most part, readers won’t notice a difference, at least until I start writing in some of the changes the new version allows. , though I’ll warn the BitsBlog authors that the dashboard will be changing. That said, let’s get to today’s Ramble: First, at the risk of being all Blago, all the time… (It does seem the subject will be with us a while)…

• Rod Blagojevich  does seem to be the gift that will be giving for some time to come, and it hasn’t even gotten started. All Fitz did, I suspect, with this indictment is light a fuse… one that’s still burning. The real explosion hasn’t gone off, yet.  Now,this thing is moving fast, and organizing these thoughts into a flowing commentary is a real problem because of the sheer speed and of the thing and the number of elements in it. So as before, we’ll set this into a breakout in no particular order.:
  • In my 35 some-odd years of watching political events, I can’t recall any event where so many Democrats were so busy trying to shove one of their own under the bus. Even in the Jim Trafficant case, the accused had defenders. Not so here. And I can’t help but think that Blago would be well defended today, with Democrats coming out of the woodwork to defend him, as they did Bill Clinton and so many others,  had John McCain won his White House bid.  The common perception Democrats seem to be operating under is that Blago going down will aid in the defense of Obama.
  • But why on earth would Obama need a defense? Even the press, and a lot of the blogs of course are now saying Obama has been exonerated. Clearly, that’s a meme that the Democrats in the Dinosaur media and the Democrats in politics are trying to sell us.
  • Thing is, it’s not true. Fitz only said that Obama was not involved in the original complaint.  Since when, dear reader, has Fitz, or any special prosecutor, been limited to the original complaint, once the investigation is underway? Scooter Libby, and Bill Clinton,  call your office.
  • Obama as you might expect, is acting as if he knows this, and is playing his cards very close indeed to the vest. Ben Smith is reporting that Obama’s transition website has basically banned any questions or comments regarding Blago, and Obama’s involvement, even though the questions are still very much out there.  Worse, it’s been noted that stories about Obama meeting with Blago are disappearing from the net. This obviously doesn’t strike me as the actions of a person, or group who finds themselves secure in their positions. It’s obvious that Obama and his people are not being fully open with the American people.
  • It’s not hard to imagine why Obama and his supporters in the press would be nervous and closed mouthed about all of this. After spending the months of runup to the election basically ignoring the feted heap of political cattle droppings that Obama rose from, despite being hammered on the point by angry voters about it, the diosaur press is, now that he’s won the election, looking closely at Obama’s history, and raising questions it should have been asking all along. As Rick Moran pointed out day before yesterday:
    

    But it is instructive to note that this is the political culture that nurtured and raised Barack Obama. To think that it hasn’t tainted him is just plain idiocy. There are plenty of examples of Obama using his clout to help a friend or crony not to mention steer government business to campaign contributors. Obama lived, breathed, ate, and slept Illinois politics for more than a decade. And that’s something to keep in mind as his Administration rolls along.

    I suggest this point hasn’t been lost on Obama and his people, which explains the ‘protect at all costs’ attitude, instead of the “openness in government’ he promised. Let’s remember, Blago, too, ran on that platform; openness, anti-corruption, being for the people, yada yada.

  • Blago claims he won’t resign. I wouldn’t expect that he would resign, so this is no shock to me. Anyone watching this knows he’s not going to hang onto his chair. He knows it, too. So why is he hanging on in spite of it all?  No, he’s not nuts. He’s engaged in political pay back to Obama, because that’s how the game gets played. This is Illinois, after all.  He knows very well that Obama needs this to go away in a hurry, lest something be uncovered, and as Moran points up the idea that there is not something there to be uncovered, strains credulity.. The longer he keeps this in the spotlight, the better chance of something on Obama leaking out. He knows it, Obama knows it, and so does the press.  Which to make the circle, explains why there’s such a panic to get Blago under the bus.
  • But if it was just Blago, would Obama and his people be so nervous? I think not. This boat has more than one hole in it, big as it is;  Rezko is apparently singing like a caged bird should.   WaPo confirms this. This would explain the reaction of Obama’s people, and of Obama himself.
  • Jesse Jackson Jr, who will in future years be better known as “Candidate Number 5”,  … (in muchthe same was as tanother famous Democrat here in NY became best known as ‘Client Number 9″ while hanging out with someone who apparently came over at the Mayflower pretty frequently…)  is also a native of Chicago shakedown politics. His is a name that will come up frequently in the next few months. Personally, I’m waiting for the first moron to claim that them ‘dragging him into this’ is all the actions of a racist nation.  One gets the feeling he’s possibly going to be removed from his seat in the lower house before this is all over. Even if that’s worng, and he manages to hold his chair there, (which strikes me as possible, given the makeup of the Congress in the new year, depending how how much his being around jeopardizes Obama…)  he’s not going to be the one replacing Obama. Look for Bobby Rush’s name to come up, now.
  • Oh, speaking of Jackson, did anyone notice his old man getting involved? Amusing,a nd rather telling, I think.
  • The New York Times is now trying to put a positive spin on this, as you might expect, saying that this is all a test for the Obama team; their first. What they don’t say, but I will, is that so far, the test results are an abject failure. They’ll never tell you that, of course. And they’re not happy, not happy at ALL, about the right’s reaction.
  • My guess is Blaggo has a divorce in his future. Long term, anyway. No, I’m not getting into wishful thinking, here, I really couldnt care less, either way. But the signs in the reports of family friction are all there.
  • And here the hell is Rahm Emanuel in all of this? Nowhere to be seen. Apparently someone thinks the information his might disclose wouldn’t be helpful to keeping The Chosen One out of trouble.
• The reviews of the new Tom Cruise movie are not good. In what has to be the quickest quip ever, the headline at Fox says “Cruise Falls Short” 
• Remember the Burger King workers that got canned for taking baths in the kitchen sink? Apparently it happens at KFC, too.  This issue aside, I’ll tell you that we tend to not partake of KFC in the major cities, opting instead to the ones in the smaller towns, more recently built. Usualy, this means ones that share space with Taco Bell; both of them being owned by Pepsi. The old style places, particularly in the big towns, don’t strike me as being overly clean or well maintained.  we’ve had good luck with the KFC/TB at Fredonia, NY, for example. Harlan Sanders, the founder, and the guy whose picture still graces the signs and such, and who was notorious for his temper, would have a cow if he saw some of these places, and what’s become of his business. That said, let’s examine this from a behavioral point of view for just a moment. Do you suppose these girls got the idea from reports of the Burger King incident? So much for the idea that the media doesn’t influence us… clearly they do, even when they’re doing their job… and that infleunce isn’t always a good thing.
• That sit-in at Republic is done. Not suprisingly, government took a hand, again. So, another bailout. I don’t suppose it’s occrred to those morons that absent the union, they’d still have jobs, huh?
• Word via email that Billy Beck’s mom is doing very well, and is up and around and getting used to things very quickly… all seems well. It’s good to hear. I make mention of this because Billy’s a friendly, but perhaps more importantly, because we could all use a little good news, where it happens.
• What global warming? Snow in Houston and New Orleans, too.
• The Death of the Dinosaur continues apace. Newsweek, this time. Faster, please.
• Why do I get the feeling there’s more to this story than they’re telling us?

Perhaps the evgents surrounding Blago will be off the spotlight for a few days, with this story.  Fox news:

The skeletal remains of a small child were found Thursday near the home of missing Orlando toddler Caylee Anthony’s family.

There was no immediate word on whether the bones, reportedly discovered wrapped in a plastic bag and bound with duct tape, were those of a boy or a girl.

Now, had they found her three and a half years ago, with chemical burns over 100% of her body, in a bucket labeled as hazardous waste, outside Planned Parenthood, nobody would have said anything. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not being flip. I’m angry.

BBCT to Billy who says..

We live with rampant horrors, now, and it’s just killing me.

(Nod) I grieve for the little girl, too. But… and Billy may disagree with me here… for all the tears that will rightly be shed, and anger that will rightly be spent on the occasional horrors like this one, the lack of anger in our society over  the horror happening every single day deserves more. What makes us sad in the case of Caylee is the value of life, particularly life as innocent as that of a 3 year old… and the indifference to it for personal gain.

I look at abortuaries around the country and I wonder; Can we honestly label these each as different cases? Can we as a nation, and as a people, be indifferent to one and not the other? It’s incidents like this that bring that question to re-examination in this blogger’s head.   I doubt I’m alone.

No need to wait for Obama to frame the issue when the Associated Press knows his favorite words already. They are great students of his oratory, after

Mary Katharine Ham, Weekly Standard