Goldfarb Drinks the Kool-Aid

Alas poor Micheal, too much time in the Arizona sun.  Back from his stint on the McPain campaign, Micheal Goldfarb, Weekly Standard, with respect to the rumor of Mrs. Clinton accepting BO’s offer of Secretary of State, writes:

Of course, if Clinton takes the job one expects she’ll be loyal to her new boss.

There be the problem.   Loyalty is a commodity which the Clintons’ demand, not one which they give.

Bit rambled about the rumor of Mrs. Clinton as BO’s Secretary of State:

There’s lots going on with this Hillary Clinton/Secretary of State deal, some of which we’ve already explored. The one thing that keeps coming up though that nobody has denied is that a Sec’ty of state role does effectively block her aspirations for the White House. 

I don’t buy it.   BO doesn’t want Mrs. Clinton anywhere near his State Depaertment.   BO is trying to sop up to Mrs. Clinton’s supporters without actually giving them anything.   Giving Mrs. Clinton access to State Department secrets would sabatoge BO’s plans to sell Israel down the river.

Welcome, one and all, to the most intense nightly erad anywhere on the ‘sphere… Bit’sBlog’s Nightly Ramble

• First off, in answer to some email I’ve been getting asking about Gingrich and his comments about Palin… Look, gang, this is Newt playing position jockey. I’ve never figured he was more immune to such plays than any other person. Guess what? That’s politics. But then, too, I’d like you to consider that is in fact the flaw in government… and I mean any kind of government.
• Turns out Chriss Dodd wasn’t the only “Friend Of Angelo” to get sweetheart deals while in positions of governmental power.  Take it to the Post Office.
• Say, rather, Pig Ignorant Anti-Religious Bigot.  Let’s just say Cole dropped off my list of regular reads years ago. His attitude here explains why.  Idiot.
• Donna and I rented a nice little suite for the night, for Saturday night Sunday morning. Been a long time since we did that, and it was worthwhile, to the point where we wondered why in the world we’d not been doing that all along.  Our anniversary, you see… Usually, we end up just taking the day off from work, usually making a small daytrip while the kids are in school. A nice drive and maybe some lunch at someplace we usually wouldn’t go… you know the drill.  Since our older boy graduated, we decided to make other plans. Having the house to ourselves simply wasn’t going to happen, this year.  And this one was nice.  Like all mileposts, it is something we’d looked forward to for months, and boom, it was gone.  Well, not gone, because it’s one of those times you always remember.
• Speaking of mileposts, good lord… we’re only a couple weeks off Thanksgiving.  And Christmas/Newyears right behind that. Gotta consider what we’re doing with the turkey, this year. I’m considering a slow charcoal fire, this year.  Don’t recall having done that.  Is it just me or is this stuff going by faster now? Seems like I just broke the camper out of mothballs last week for the summer, and now I’ve got snow in my window. Neil Peart…. his politics are downright abysmal, but it must be said he knew what he was writing about when he wrote “Time Stand Still” Stopped clocks are right twice a day, I suppose.
• I see Billy posted a few pics from South Africa at Two-Four. I don’t suppose I’ll ever get the chance to visit there.
• Speaking of Billy I see him wading in on a post from Bainbridge, that DavidL and I have already spoken up on about Spitzer. The answer to your question, Billy, is ‘Rehab’. Do the math. That they’re being quite so open about making the attempt tells me there’s a lot going on here… more than meets the eye even, and that’s bad enough.
• I see Spam is doing well, again. No, the real kind. I don’t mind the stuff… it grills well… makes a fair addition to kabobs, and makes interesting Chilli filler, in moderation. Donna can’t stand it, though. Personally, I’m still waiting for somene to figure out how to make used spam snot… that stuff they pack Spam in, in the cans… into some useful item, like Diesel fuel.
• I see California’s weather is getting better, and so the fires are getting under control again.  It’s gonna take a few days to really get the situation in hand. On the whole, I’d rather have snow.  Which we have around here today, as it happens.
• Winter depression settling in….
• John Venlet  at Improved Clinch notes that Global Warming types should perhaps go in for remedial math courses. Yeah, well, at least that, John. I gotta tell you folks, this guy should be on your read list. Pleases me no end he’s posting again.
• I see someone got knifed at the Urban Music Awards show. Seems to me I’ve commented on such happenings previously, here.  Several times, in fact. (And yes, I know, I left the search params wide on that by intent. You’ll see why… but if you insist on a more direct route, start here. ) Gee. A riot and a fight at an ‘urban music’ show. Who’d have thought THAT would happen, right? They’re all acting shocked. I suppose if they said they’d expected it the charge of ‘racist’ would be out before the echo died. But predicting riots at what amounts to a rap  music concert, is like predicting tthat the sun will come up in the east tommrow morning.
• So, Obama is now saying Obama Says Government Will Do ‘Whatever It Takes’ to Revive Economy…  Anything except getting government out of the way, right? Remember, he’s still on abotu ‘re-regulation’, as opposed to reducing government interference he plans to amp it up, which is a surefire way to make the problem worse.
• Reynolds posts one the the stronger arguments I’ve seen recently that NRA memberships are not male exclusives.
• Murdoch gets this one right, I think.
  

  “My summary of the way some of the established media has responded to the internet is this: it’s not newspapers that might become obsolete. It’s some of the editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper’s most precious asset: the bond with its readers,”

  It’s like I pointed out with AM radio, and Satellite radio, cable TV and Blogs… It’s not the medium, it’s the CONTENT. The Dinosaur media is dying because they’re too busy tiliting left at windmills. It’s really that simple.

• NASA and global warming: The Wrong Stuff. Nice to see them admit it, but frankly it strikes me as more than likely that the reason this actually got as far as it did was because it mathces the meme someone wants to project.
•  There’s lots going on with this Hillary Clinton/Secretary of State deal, some of which we’ve already explored. The one thing that keeps coming up though that nobody has denied is that a Sec’ty of state role does effectively block her aspirations for the White House. The blockage is more psychological than anything else, I suppose, but let’s face it; the last time anyone made that leap was President Buchanan.  Possibly the reason why we’re so reluctant to elect former Secretaries of State to the White House is Buchanan was so gawd-awful as President. (A Democrat, of course. And he thought the war of 1812 an “unnecessary conflict”. He found out otherwise when the Brits landed at Baltimore. Sound familiar?)   Anyway, I can’t help but think this dead- ends her, and removes a problem for Obama in 2012. Thing is, I can’t help but think she knows this history and, in her typical ‘laws involving mere mortals don’t apply to me’ attitude,  thinks she can rise above it all.  She could possibly run in ’21, I wouldn’t put it past her..but I have my doubts she’d actually win against a sitting Presdient Obama… though a Republican… a CONSERVATIVE Republican, might.
• The UAW bailout (for so it is, really) proceeds apace.
• Maybe, Radley… but out here in reality, particularly when Democrats are the subject, things don’t work that way.
• Ann Althouse correctly points out there’s no mandate for Obama. Interestingly, she voted for the guy. I sense buyer’s remorse is already settling in here.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting just now:

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, for allegedly dumping shares in Mamma.com upon learning it was raising money in a private offering (full text of complaint).

The SEC alleges in a civil action that Mr. Cuban sold his entire 6% ownership stake on June 28, 2004, after learning that Mamma.com was raising money through a private investment in a public entity, or PIPE. The next day, on June 29, the company announced the PIPE financing and shares of the company dropped by more than 10%. By selling his stake, the SEC alleges, Mr. Cuban avoided more than $750,000 in losses.

Even at first blush, I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t payback for comments he’s made about Obama and the Economy.

IsraelNN.com- Arab students disrupted a pro-Israel event at the campus of the  University of California at Berkeley Thursday night, unfurling a large Palestinian flag in front of a crowd of hundreds of supporters of Israel who were enjoying a pro-Israel hip-hop concert. The event was sponsored by the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group.

The Arab students unfurled the large flag on a balcony above the outdoor site where the concert was taking place, inciting a provocation right in front of the concert-goers, who were enjoying the event as part of the campus’ Israel Liberation Week. Several Jewish concertgoers went into the building to ask the Arabs to remove the flag – but were viciously attacked, with one male concertgoer knocked down from a blow on the back of his head, witnesses said.

College alumnus Gabe Weiner, who was helping run the concert, was assaulted by the leader of the anti-Israel group, Husam Zakharia, who also attacked one of the performers, Yehuda De Sa. The fight was finally broken up by John Moghtader, a senator in the UC Berkeley student organization. Police were called in and arrested Zakharia along with others from his group, charging them with battery. Witnesses said that the Arab students shouted anti-Semitic curses and epithets throughout the incident, calling the Jews “Nazis” and “dogs,” and threatening to kill them. According to one witness, as many as 20 anti-Israel students participated in the attacks.

UC Berkeley? I mean, should anyone be shocked, by these happenings? Is any of this out of the ordinary? Is there anyone who doesn’t understand that the purvayors of hate here are the supposed “Palestinians”?

If AGW Is Real, Why Do They Have To Lie?

William Teach, Stop the ACLU.

I was out of pocket for the overnight hours. I’ll tell you about that later. In catching up, I find Bruce over at Q&O:

When you hear either party denouncing “crony captialism” as an evil and something that government must not engage in, take it with a grain of salt. You remember this from Nancy Pelosi, parroting Barack Obama, I’m sure:

She denounced AIG as “a ripoff situation” and unleashed a scathing attack on Wall Street financiers.

“All these sophisticated financial instruments that these ‘geniuses’ on Wall Street have come up with brought instability to our economy,” she said with disdain.

She denounced what she called “crony capitalism” — a phrase also used by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama in his statement on the AIG rescue.

But when it comes to the auto industry, now there’s a crony worth saving according to both Pelosi and Obama. It appears that there is “crony capitalism” and then there is “too big to fail (and unionized too)” crony capitalism.

Well, look, it doesn’t take much in the way of thought process to see what the cause of this is; Unions. Let me be clear, here:

Pelosi, along with many of the Congressional Democrats, is in the pocket of the UAW, being bought and paid for. As we have been saying for weeks now, this is not a bailout of the Big three… Democrats after all usually don’t care about American industry. Why should it be different now? Simple; If the Big Three fail, the UAW… a huge source of votes and money for Democrats, fails with it.

Pelosi will tell you, of course, that the difference in treatment is because she’s trying to help the average workers, and not Wall Street millionaires. Of course she ignores that the working people she’s supposedly helping are going to be hit harder by a Wall Street failure than those millionaires are. Clearly, Pelosi and the Democrats figure UAW votes and money are by far more important than is your 401k and mine.

Mind, I’m not happy about ANYONE being bailed out by the federal government. But the difference in treatment by the Democrats one case to another is instructive as to their intentions. Wall Street types tend not to vote for Democrats. Union types do. Do the math.

Where there is smoke, there is fire. 

Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes; Dr. Wiley S. Drake, Sr.; and Markham Robinson are suing Barack Obama over his eligibility to be president.
Sound Investiments has a copy of the petition (pdf).

McQ over at Q&O points up a source of power we haven’t been using as much as we should; Tidal forces.

With 12,383 miles of US coastline, this seems like a technology which would make sense for both development and exploitation:

THE race to develop Scotland’s seas into the “Saudi Arabia of marine power” is about to start, with plans for 500 underwater turbines in the Pentland Firth.

The Scotsman can reveal that an Australian company is already preparing a serious bid for the huge tidal farm that it says will power one million homes.

Atlantis Resources wants to be the first to take advantage of an imminent decision by the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed, to invite firms to build in the powerful seas off the north coast.

Tides are powerful, and unlike wind, predictable as clockwork. Added bonus, the turbines are underwater, therefore not visible and taking up scarce land resources like wind turbines and vast solar panel arrays.

Here’s a graphic that describes in rough terms, the process. It’s from Technology Student.com which is a decent place to do online research.

Now, Bruce does a fair job of examining the issue, (It’s worth a read, no question) but he leaves out the most important aspect of all, I think…. the environmental movement and it’s impact of such energy ventures.  I tell Bruce:

Funny this should come up. I was just going over some old snaps of a recent… (Well, come to think of it, 10 years ago isn’t so recent) visit to the Bay of Fundy and wonder if they could do something similar. The tides they have there are legendary, and are supposedly the highest tides in the world. Check the pics for an idea of just how massive the tides are.

If you look at these pics, you’ll see Hopewell Rocks, which are one of the tourist traps there. Watch the pics in the header switch from high to low tide. I’ve stood on that beach, twice in my life. It’s amazing to me how little changed over the 35 or so years between visits. You stand on the beach and look UP at where the water was.

There is some power to be had there, of course. Then, too, and again of course, the environmental whackos will be in full cry a half second after this stuff gets suggested, no matter where you put them.

I have often thought that the Niagara Power project… just a an hour down the road from me here… would never be able to be completed today, for that same reason.

…

My slightly veiled point, though, is how many of these potential sources, of whatever type, and location, Nukes, tidal, wind, etc… all of them… will invariably land in the court system. None will survive the Environmentalists. A look at the fight that occurs with ostensibly clean power of wind turbines every time some are proposed for a given area, is exemplary.

Tidal power generating stations will each require billions in environmental impact studies, and in red tape… effectively preventing their construction.

And until the environmental movement is dealt with… (and I think in the end, force will be required) how can we ever overcome power shortages?

And there’s the key, folks.  Our progress is being hobbled by these people. GIven the hard-leftist administration we have starting in January,  that situation changing anytime soon doesn’t seem likely.

In the mail, just now:

Not too long ago Chuck Adkins sent you an invite to join the Scour search
community and your invite is still open!

Mr. Chuck Adkins of Lincoln Park, Michigan

Heh. I’ll just bet it is.

Oh, you don’t remember Chucky?

Here’s a reminder.

Another.

And another. (Complete with audio, no less!)

More

and more yet.

The answer’s no, Chuckles. Can you even begin to understand why?

I’ve been pondering a post over at Riehl World View for a few days, now. Here’s part of it.

First, for the Moonbats who might scream because I believe Barack Obama is “un-American,” well, sorry, but he is.

When I use the term, I am referring to people, institutions and politicians who believe in something different from what the Founding Fathers envisioned for this country. And Obama is surely that. I don’t care about his “centrist” rhetoric. I imagine he’ll try and play nice. But the man is a Leftist and Leftism is un-American by definition. So chew on that.

But he isn’t going to try and “move America Left.” He and like-minded individuals are going to try and re-define the Center of American politics, thereby making the Left seem more centrist. Watch what he does below the headlines with regulatory agencies and such. That’ll be the better clue as to his real agenda.

He’s a collectivist through and through. And collectivism and the basic premise of American exceptional-ism are two very different things.

Obama and the Democrats are going to try and use the current financial crisis to re-make this country more in the model of modern Europe than traditional America. And in that they must not be allowed to succeed.

Obama un-american? Yep. So too, his supporters, I think.

That said, in all honesty, this was Clinton’s ploy, per then- Clinton- loyalist Dick Morris; Make the left appear mainstream.

Certainly, it managed to get the man elected.  Riehl is correct, here, when he says the whole thing tilts left the moment Obama gets the reins, and we have Clinton’s administration and it’s history as documentation. And maybe, just maybe, that’s a major reason why so many Clintonistas Hillary, included, are mixed in with the overt socialist/Marxist crowd in his list of Administration candidates?

Speaking of the latter, does anyone remember this picture?

Does anyone now suppose that there was no political meaning for such a poster being up in an Obama office?

Look, granted that is a long leap between the Ameriucan center and these people. But that’s what Obama managed to sell to enough people.  We’re about to pay the piper on that, I fear.

One of the constant running memes from 9/11 until now has been that GWB was warned offficially about al-Qaeda threats.. That the warnings were not actionable in any way doesn’t seem to matter much to those pushing the idea. So, how do you suppose those same people will react in the next few months? The London Times: says:

Barack Obama is being given ominous advice from leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to brace himself for an early assault from terrorists.

General Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, this week acknowledged that there were dangers during a presidential transition when new officials were coming in and getting accustomed to the challenges. But he added that no “real or artificial spike” in intercepted transmissions from terror suspects had been detected.

President Bush has repeatedly described the acute vulnerability of the US during a transition. The Bush Administration has been defined largely by the 9/11 attacks, which came within a year of his taking office.

His aides have pointed to al-Qaeda’s first assault on the World Trade Centre, which occurred little more than a month after Bill Clinton became President in 1993. There was an alleged attempt to bomb Glasgow airport in Gordon Brown’s first days in Downing Street and a London nightclub attack was narrowly thwarted.

So, Obama has been warned. Keep this as a marker, folks. Let’s see how he does, and if, on his impending and quite predictable failure, the critics of Bush be quite as harsh on The Chosen One?

Personally, I doubt it, but we’ll see.

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

A fairly quiet couple of day around these parts…. not unexpected, given the post election lull. Still, that doesn’t mean that all is quiet.

• So, now we see Ayers saying Obama… welll… let’s let the Chicago Tribune say it:
  

  In a new afterword to his memoir, 1960s radical William Ayers describes himself as a “family friend” of President-elect Barack Obama and writes that the campaign controversy over their relationship was an effort by Obama’s political enemies to “deepen a dishonest narrative” about the candidate.

  Hold it… back the truck up, here. Is Ayers a family freind as he claims? Then it’s not a dishonest narrative, and what we have here is Ayers spinning. Not unexpected, but yet another sign of how dishonest Obama and those around him are.

• I’m willing to bet you won’t hear much about how an aide to Babs Boxer got nailed in a child porn sting.
• Why do I get the feeling that federal anti-terrorism forces won’t be swinging into full action over this one? Once again, what I’ve said for years, comes into play… it’s not that someone hates, but whom.  Where, dear reader, is the leftist outcry over this? Where is Saint Andrew the Incontinent over this? I’ve seen no comment on these terrorism matters… and that’s what this amounts to. Where is Greenwald? Never mind… rhetorical question. You and I both know they’ll be amazingly quiet. I guess all of this is OK, since the people in question aren’t Muslim. Says Reynolds, this morning….
  

  OH, WHILE I’M PASSING OUT CONSTRUCTIVE ADVICE, can I suggest that folks unhappy about Proposition 8 would be better-served by pushing for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act than by protesting at Mormon Temples and stomping on crosses? …

  No kidding. Oh… and remember, gang, Obama opposes homosexual marriage.  The left is like the cat with buttered toast attached to it’s back on this one… Spinning like a top and never hitting the floor.

• That flight from India landed on the moon. The luggage ended up in Newark, however.
• I see the left is still trying to steal the election for Al Franken. Again, not unexpected. Ed Morrissey has more on this, and is going to be the best source for info on the matter.   Power Line, New York Post, www.redstate.com, Minnesota Democrats Exposed and Townhall.com  have more, too. I see Chuckles the Clown Schumeris claiming tha Republicans are ‘meddling’ in the count there. What he does not say, however, is that the Democrats have 12 lawyers per counting location.  Who is it meddling, again, Chuckles?
• Joyner notes Hayden’s speech yesterday, and the laughable “reporting” on it.  Joyner attended that speech, and says the reporting on it is vastly different than the actual speech. Let’s examine, though, the why of it. Says James…
  

  It seemed obvious to me that the “news” was Hayden’s declaration that “Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas” along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. While not exactly shocking to those who have followed the news on the subject, it’s a much more sweeping statement than I’ve seen by someone in a position of authority.Interesting, almost none of the world class beat reporters covering the story led with that

  What ARE they leading with…Walter Pincus at the Washington Post, for example?  

  CIA Chief: Iraq Not Main Front

   

  … and that of course has been the lefty meme all along… that Iraq never WAS the core of the thing. Of course they’re dead wrong in this, but never let here facts stop you. To the credit, by the way, of Pincus, he uses the words….

  CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday that al-Qaeda remains the single greatest threat to the United States but that Iraq is no longer the central front in the broader war on terrorism

  The headline, though, which Pincus himself doubtless didn’t write, meshes nicely on it’s face with the meme the left has been trying all along to sell. Go ahead, gang, and tell me how we’re not STILL being manipulated, here. 

• Dennis Miller, as usual, gets to the heart of the matter. Of course, the truth tends to annoy liberals. Isn’t it interesting how this played out over time? I mean, look, Miller’s response here is exactly what the left would have said in the 60’s. Work THAT one out for yourself. They have become what they were ostensibly protesting against, 35 years ago.
• Obviously, Neal, these people were never exposed to “Air America.” Wanna talk about hate? There ya go. Goes hand in hand with the Miller thing, too.
• A trend… If you can’t stand the truth, silence the truth speakers, appears to be the rule.
• Apparently, at least part of the message sent from voters was received… I see the GOP is now filing federal lawsuits against McCain-Feingold campaign finance regulations. I’m telling you, gang… The voters understand how bogus the calls for ‘nonpartisanship’ are.
• Remember that Chris Dodd interview that Clear Channel spiked? They ran it… but over 1000 miles away from where the interview was generated…. in Dodd’s home district. Gee, wonder why? Anyway, wanna hear it? Here you go.
• West coast having wildfires again.  Around 100 million dollar homes destroyed. We’re about to hear all about how these poor people need federal bailout help to rebuild their $2.6MUSD(avg) homes.  And after all the complaints we’ve had about ‘it’s all for the rich’ nobody will bat an eyelash when the come begging, because after all, these are liberals, such as Oprah Winfrey who live in that area. And I’ll bet they won’t understand the anger they get in response.
• Remember Monica Lewinsky’s girlfreind, Linda Tripp? She’s Baaaack… Yet another Clinton administation retread. Is this ‘change’?
• Hey, West, you flipping MORON… If you’re as you claim the ‘voice of this generation’, then we have solid indication just how badly we’re screwed. Of course we’re going to hear all about how this latest arrest is becase you’re black.

It’s the same old liberal song, where the double standard applies.

WASHINGTON -NY Daily News- Barack Obama ended his campaign so flush with cash he’s telling staffers to keep the change – and then some.

Long-suffering political footsoldiers who toiled tirelessly, at least since September, to put Obama in the White House recently learned they will be getting extra paychecks worth a month’s salary, the Daily News has learned.

And boy, are they grateful.
“I think it’s a very nice gesture for people who slaved away and sacrificed for the past year,” said one pleased ex-staffer.

Hey, wait a tick, here. Aren’t these the same folks complaining about how major corporations, and banks…  are showing their employees the same consideration?

That’s what Ben Smith is reporting, this morning:

Andrea Mitchell reported this evening that Obama is considering Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, something that’s been buzzed about as a possibility for a few days.

I haven’t been able to confirm it, and neither Obama nor Clinton camps would comment, though NBC apparently has confirmation that she went to Chicago today.

One interesting item: Clinton aides are not knocking the report down, which they might.

Since Ben wrote that, apparently, there are confirmations are coming from a number of sources, including the Washington Post:

There’s increasing chatter in political circles that the Obama camp is not overly happy with the usual suspects for secretary of state these days and that the field might be expanding somewhat beyond Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and maybe former Democratic senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.

There’s talk, indeed, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) may now be under consideration for the post. Her office referred any questions to the Obama transition; Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment.

The chatter I’m hearing from the radio this morning suggests that Clinton has already made it past the first round.   So, yet another Clinton Administration retread gets placed in office.

Question: Where is this ‘change’ I kept hearing about, and how can that be accomplished when all Obama’s been able to do is shuffle the Clinton administration’s deck chairs a little?