Help!

Mike Hendrix is asking for help.

Do what you can.

Jill Stanek has confirmation, from the BO campaign, that BO lied about his support for infanticide:

Bearing in mind the Obama campaign now admits he voted as state senator against the very same legislation passed overwhelmingly on the federal level to stop infanticide.

The Geezer is not my idea of an ideal canidate but at least McCain knows that a living baby outside the womb is entitled to to treated as person, and not a tumor.

I’ll open this by saying that by rights, and in a sane world, Paul Krugman should be hammered flat on economics, and drummed from his perch at the New York Times. However, let’s admit this isn’t a sane world, and Krugman and the New York Times deserve each other.  That said:

By rights, John McCain should be getting hammered on economics.

After all, Mr. McCain proposes continuing the policies of a president who’s had a truly dismal economic record — job growth under the current administration has been the slowest in 60 years, even slower than job growth under the first President Bush. And the public blames the White House, giving Mr. Bush spectacularly low ratings on his handling of the economy.

Really, Paul? Well, let’s see, here.

Would it shock you, Paul to learn that in most ways President Bush’s economic record outshnes that of Bill Clinton? It’s true; J Edward Carter, in the winter of 2004, gave us these figures in an NRO posting:

Compared with the “exceptional” years of 1993, 1994, and 1995, the first three years of George W. Bush’s presidency featured:

• lower inflation
•  lower unemployment
• faster productivity growth
• Faster labor compensation growth (i.e., wages and benefits)
•  29.4 percent ($6.9 trillion) more economic output
•  45 percent ($960 billion) more exports; and
•  an economic growth rate 81.2 percent as fast as that under Clinton

It gets better. Carter continues from there:

Considering the circumstances under which the U.S. economy has labored for the past few years, President Bush’s record is all the more impressive. When George W. Bush moved into the White House, the economy was on the verge of recession. The largest stock market bubble in U.S. history had recently burst, exports were declining, manufacturing employment had been falling for half a year, and people were finding it harder and harder to find work. And that was before 9/11, the war on terror, and the revelations of the corporate-governance scandals that grew out of the late 1990s.

The tax cuts President Bush signed into law helped alleviate the impact of these economic shocks and kept millions of Americans working who would have otherwise lost their jobs. Consequently, the unemployment rate peaked in June 2003 at 6.3 percent, compared with peaks of 7.8 percent and 10.8 percent during the previous two recessions.

With the U.S. economy on the upswing, President Bush’s critics are finding it increasingly difficult to disparage his economic record. But that won’t stop them. Fortunately, as Aldous Huxley observed, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

Indeed.

Now one could, I suppose, wonder how it is that such a highly sought after and knowledgeable economist as Krugman tells us he is, could forget these things. The most obvious conclusion to draw is that Krugman is a political hack.

Like I said, he and the Times deserve each other. The only thing that keeps Krugman in the Tofu is the GED’s that still think he’s impressive. Most other folks, not so much. Of course there’s the hard left that worships on his altar, but they’d worship anything that mouthed what they want to hear. Krugman certainly does that. In both cases, Krugman knows where his target audience is, and writes to them. But the relationship between Krugman and truth is non-exsistant.

Call Bush’s record a failure all you want, Paul. It just doesn’t make it so. Oh… and Pau? You should remember, Bush isn’t who you’re running against.

Apparently, the time has come, by the lights of Saint Andrew the Incontinent, to swift boat John McCain.  Now, you will recall, I’m no major fan of John McCain. At the same time, this stuff, as pointed up by Tom Maguire at Just One Minute is well beyond the pale…. and interestingly enough, Saint Andrew would have agreed with me before his revelation on the road to Sodom, as you’ll se in this clip:

Excitable Andy has decided to Swift Boat John McCain:

I’ve now heard it countless times. McCain has used what appears to be an intensely personal moment in a prison camp as a reason to vote for him in a campaign ad. As he tells it today, it was the pivotal moment in his struggle to survive in the Hanoi Hilton. And yet, in his first thorough account of his time in captivity, in 1973, the story is absent. The story is also hauntingly like that recounted by Solzhenitsen, as told in Luke Veronis, “The Sign of the Cross”:

…

I have one simple question: when was the first time that McCain told this story?

Uh huh.  Because the sign of the cross is a pretty well-kept secret, so how could prison guards invoke it twice in one century?  FWIW, the story appears in McCain’s 1999 “Faith Of My Fathers”, although I have no idea whether McCain told it earlier.  Lexis mavens?

The Kossacks are on this search for the truth, so we know it will be kept classy.  And speaking of classy, let’s crack open the Time Vault and go all the way back to June 30 for a different perspective from a then Non-Excitable Andy:

This kind of personal attack was repulsive coming against Kerry from the far right. And it’s repulsive the other way round. Both Kerry and McCain served their country honorably; and their records should be revered, period. You can make an argument against McCain’s foreign policy experience and judgment on its merits. Do it and leave this crap out of it.

Well, that was almost two months ago.  Evidently the bell has rung and now its time to bring the crap.

McCain, after being rescued from "The Plantation"

Tom then goes to dismantle the story… does a fair job of it, too. Go and read.

But, one question: Where was Saint Andrew the Incontinent when the ‘Magic Hat” story was being offered? I wonder if the left is prepared for the backlash that’s coming on this stuff?

By the way… I’m not sure I buy the ‘Swiftboat’ tag in this.  See, the Swiftboat folks had some truth going for them. St Andrew lacks that advantage.

Dan Riehl:

Via NewsBusters today it’s Andrea Mitchell hinting that Senator John McCain may have “cheated” at the Saddleback Civil Forum.

MS. ANDREA MITCHELL: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, there was the crisp, immediate, forceful response by John McCain, clearly in a comfort zone because he was with his base. And Barack Obama, taking a risk in going there but seeing an opportunity. And a much more nuanced approach. The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because that — what they’re putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.

Flashback to the Presidential Debates 2004 via The Register:

Was Bush packing Wi-Fi in TV debate?

Miraculous clarity arouses suspicion

It’s shameful and shamefully obvious what’s going on here, it actually somewhat began with Reagan. Call the Republican candidate dumb, or not sharp enough until it begins to sink in. Then, when they debunk that myth by besting the Democrat one on one – well, it had to have been cheating.

Or, they’ll claim it didn’t matter the Democrat lost that particular round. Sour grapes, you know. 
And we’ve seen this before, of course.

A couple issues with the BitsBlog site to tell you about.

1: The website has been on and off slow for a couple days, now. We’ve traced the issue down to a  problem with the webserver’s interface with the backend database.  I’m working with the web hosting company (IX Webhosting) to resolve this one, and I must say I’m impressed with  their tech support staff. UNlike a few other places I’ve been these folks have been seriously trying to nail it. In the end, I thkn what I’m going to do is get this site off the Windows server it’s running on, and onto a linux one.  I’m convinced at least part of the problem is the way Windows deals with mySQL databases. Besides, I no longer have need to use the Windows interface, or extensions. So, we’ll see what it’s going to take.  I’m a little concerned, here because this will possibly involve an IP address change. That will cause some serious traffic problems during the DNS transition. I’ll be talking with them tomorrow, and we’ll see what’s what.

2: The comments section editor is a little screwy on some browsers. It looks like it’s trying to justify right, all the time.  Looks like a Java issue.  I’m looking at a different editor to plug in there.

(Update: Well, the editor problem apparently is an incompatibility between this theme and MCE comments. It’s set for bare bones comments at the moment. Not as pretty , but it’ll work till I figure something else out.)

My friends, we spent $3 million of your money to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Now I don’t know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue, but the point is — but the point is it was $3 million of your money. It was your money.

John McCain: via, Steve Benen, Carpet Bagger Report.

Barack Obama is out and out liar.  Amanda Carpenter, Townhall:

The AP story proves Obama is the one who is lying, not the NRLC.

Obama’s position is not merely pro-choice.   Obama’s position on abortion is pro-infanticide.   It is understandable that BO doesn’t want to defend his pro-infanticide voting record, but the record is quite plan and clear.

Yeah, I know. I”ve not said much about The Olympics.

Truth to tell, it really hasn’t managed to capture my interest this time around. Then again, there are very few spots that do, anymore. No, it’s not that I’ve turned into a couch potato, or that I’ve turned in my supply of testosterone, there’s something deeper going on here that I’m going to try to describe to you.

Yes, I was a baseball fan at one time, prior to the strikes, the doping,  and so on. Big turn-off, frankly.

Basketball, as I wrote a few years ago, has lost it’s edge for me 20 years gone, now. I at one time followed the Boston Celtics… every time they played…. for years during their repeated championship runs in the 90s. Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Robert Parish, the whole crew. That whole scene has changed for the worse I think. So much of it comes down to cash, anymore. Who’s got it, who wants it bad enough, who is cheating to get it. Who’s stabbing what owner in the back, what owner is playing his players for saps, etc. And of course the player’s unions. It’s more about ‘bling’, in the NBA, and showing off, than about teamwork. Bling takes cash, and there seems no shortage of it in the NBA, at least form the players’ end. From the fan’s end there seems precious little after you get done paying for the tickets and the concessions.

I make no bones about my following the Bills through the 90’s, and right up to today, though frankly even that has lost some of the edge it used to have now that they’re a mid-pack team, and that they’re being threatened with a move off to Toronto when Ralph Wilson passes on. God Bless Ralph, I gotta give the man credit, he’s trying to keep them in Buffalo. But I wonder how successful he’ll be at it, and I wonder if he doesn’t as well. As with so many other things it comes down to money. I’ll be at the tube, or at the game, (When I can afford it) but I can’t help feeling that something’s being lost, and not just for my team.

I’ve written here and elsewhere several times over the years the lobbying the doping, the cheating, etc, etc, in all of these sports anymore, and on every level, is nothing more than reflection of the society that we are in.  There is something about the way our society has gone the last couple of years … mmmmm say the last 40 or so, that has changed the nature of the sports that reflect it. I am not at all convinced that it is for the better.

There was a time in this country and indeed in the world when the sports we played were supposed to hold high the most precious ideals of our respective societies.  Fairplay, honesty, and more.  The sports world was just about the only place left where your own future rested totally on your talent and your willingness to use those talents and improve them over time.  Of course, and more importantly, your team’s future tended to ride on those talents as well.

Most certainly, there are talented people in the major leagues today.  How much of that talent, how much of that physical ability, comes out of the needles? Well, frankly, nobody knows. Admittedly the leagues have moved to prevent, as they can, this kind of abuse, but the bottom line is that in any league that you care to name these days, league rules notwithstanding, we have no bloody idea how much of it goes on.  That lack of understanding is perhaps more damaging than the actual incidence of it.  The only thing we do know is if someone is a team uniform in the major leagues these days if football basketball baseball what have you, the chances are pretty good that they’re using something to improve their performance.  The chances are also pretty good, that they’re making more for playing this game manual make in the next two months.

It’s true there’s always been such people attached to professional sports, but not all of them, and certainly not so flagrantly as we see today.

OK, Maybe, just maybe, I’m judging the entire world of sport by means of what I see here in the major leagues of the United States and some other Western countries.  So, maybe that’s unfair of me.  But did I just see the other day where there was some serious question about how old some of the gymnast girls were on the Chinese team?  Did I just see somebody on the Czechoslovakian shooting squad get disqualified because he didn’t pass the blood test? Haven’t we seen exactly this kind of behavior from the former Soviet Union as a matter of routine?

There was a time before perhaps any of us were born, when this kind of cheating was not a concern.  While I will grant that there is a lot to the notion that this whole thing is a function of the technological society that we live in, I think the larger issue is not what we gained in terms of technology but what we are missing; honor, honesty, integrity, and the sportsman’s attitude of old.

That attitude, I think, that holding high of ideals, is what made sport special, and magical.  It’s true, that the various leagues are putting clamps on performance enhancement drugs, but I remember a time when such rules were not necessary.  I’m old enough to remember a time when athletes weren’t struggling to get around the rules, but reveled in them.  The same thing applies to the Olympics, with the added understanding that the athletes aren’t the only ones involved these days, but rather in most cases the government’s are encouraging’ a little advantage’ for geo-political reasons of their own.

And speaking of political reasons for performance at the Olympic Games, shall we speak of the political gains for the Communists in China?  Economic experts tell us that China is in the process of imploding on itself economically speaking.  Being a command economy, is making their situation far worse than it might have been otherwise.  From what we’re seeing on the outside, and from the reports I’ve heard from inside the last year or two, China is a precise example of what is wrong communistic society. Yet we are going to give a moment in the sun to the magnificent bastards who run the place.   We will pay homage to them for putting on a good show.  As Billy Beck observed last week, there is an undercurrent here that cannot be denied. And he’s right.

My fascination has become very morbid. It’s uncanny to watch something so technically advanced and which my professional estimation is compelled to admire in cold terms, and all the while realizing where it comes from.  My conclusion, which was born the first time I saw it: “If I had the productivity of over a billion people at my summary disposal, I could do that, too.”

I can’t help but wonder as I watched the headlines pouring in from Beijing how genuine some of the victories were seeing reported, are.  I admit it; the kind of non-sportsmanlike behavior that I have seen both in professional sports and an amateur sports including the Olympics over the past 30 years has jaded my point of view.  It’s taken some of the magic away for me. when added to the political gamesmanship being played by the Chinese government in all of this, and the undercurrents of slavery of the Chinese people to the government, the whole thing is just flat-out unpalatable to me.

Admittedly, part of me is pleased to see the reports that we’ve done reasonably well at the Olympic games this year.  I am pleased to see the inglorious grunge from Iran was loudly booed when they showed up.  there is that small justice and least. I’m sure that people from the world over are having the time of their lives, times they will tell their grandkids about someday.

So congratulations, athletes.  Congratulations medal winners.  Congratulations Michael Phelps for wining  your eighth gold medal in a row. There’s no denying it; there is a lot in the way of the positive that has come out of these games.

In the end, however, the negatives I mention here, very nearly overcome all the positive that comes out of it. Sport used to be, along with all the rest, a celebration of higher ideals. These days, it is nearly anything but that, in majority.  That factor, for me at least, makes watching the whole thing on TV, or even following it too closely. unendurable.

Every once in awhile the Bush derangement syndrome sufferers find themselves unable to employ self-restraint.  I certainly include Josh Marshall in the list of those sufferers.

The truth is that the US screwed up here in a big way. This isn’t to excuse the Russians. But we pumped the Georgians up as our big Iraq allies, got them revved up about coming into NATO, playing all this pipeline politics, all of which led them to have a much more aggressive posture toward the Russians than we were willing, in the final analysis, to back up. So now they’ve gotten badly mauled And we have to decide whether to double down on the moronic policy (McCain position) or try to unwind and loosen this knot, walk this thing back to something like the status quo ante and then try working the whole nestle of problems in a very different way.

Are the states in question former Soviet states, and now free and independent nations? Or, are they, as Marshall seems to me to be arguing, still fiefdoms belonging to Russia?

If they are free and independent nations how is it “Mornic policy” (Mrshall’s words) to encourage them to act as free and independent nations? What Marshall seems to be proposing is not knuckling under to the former Soviet Union who for all the world is still acting like the Soviet Union putting down a rebel state within that union, as one would Lithuania, Poland, or Czechoslovakia, back in the day. And yes, I understand full well what I’m implying.

Bottom line:
The fault here is Russia’s, and Russia’s alone, who seemingly can’t get over the idea that they are no longer the power they once were, largely due to their own excesses. What Marshall propose does nothing but give deference to Russia because it might exhibit those excesses once again, as if they were the natural order of things, and acceptable.

It occurs to me to ask if Marshall would be so quick to blame America and its foreign-policy were there a Democrat in the White House doing exactly the same thing. I will remind you all that there was a Democrat in the White House pressing for former Soviet states to become NATO members not so very long ago, and that this process of getting Georgia into the world community directly, and not filtered through the dictates of Moscow has been going on for 15 years, now.

Funny how that never seems to make it into the discussion by way of the ‘blame America’ crowd. Of course there’s a large reason for that omission, with a date of “November” stamped on it.

Addendum:  (David L)

We have got some little bit of military expertise here.  Bit is an old armor soldier and I am old airman.   The United States had no military option to oppose the Russian invasion of Georgia.   It takes heft to blunt an armored attack and it takes time to lift heavy forces into theater.   Recent deployments for armored units have been measured in month and not days.  We have had chronic shortfalls in lift for decades.

The reason the NATO deterrent works is that the tacit premise would that a Soviet attack on United States forces would result in nuclear retaliation.   Georgia is not part of NATO and there were no American troops present to serve as a nuclear trip wire.  

The growls of the Russian bear have sent a clear message.    Europe can be part of the Russian bloc and placate Russian interests, or they can stand up and fight.   The Russian bear has growled.   Europe must either prepare to resist further Russian aggreession or they can make placating the Russians their foremost foreign policy objective.   Neutrality is simply not an option.   There are no Citizens of the World.   You can either be with the Russians or against them.

Addendum II: (Bit) Actualy, David, my brother Lee is the soldier. Or, was.  1SG, in fact, a 20 year man.  I make no military pretensions. 

That said, you’re quite right; given the time frames involved the US had no millitary option available to them, due to sheer logitics as much as anything else.

  From a foreign policy standpoint, Russia played what they thought their best option, before Georgia become a NATO member. Notice, please, that Russia has NEVER gone against any NATO member, and likely wanted to get in there while their membership was still not a done deal.  On that basis it can be said that those opposing Georgia’s NATO application are at least partially responsible for Russia’s attack on Georgia.

I think however, Russia’s not thought this through. As evidence, I cite the offer of Lithuania and Poland for missile sites. Clearly, their actions did nothing but add to the resolve of the former Soviet states to defend themselves against Russia.

(The Navy Cross)

The doorbell rang at 3am. Mike Morel answered it and stood staring at 3 Marines .

“You’re going to tell me my son is dead”, he said.

“Yes, sir”, one of the Marines answered.

“Was he in the front when he died”.

“Yes, sir”, said the Marine.

Said Mike Morel, “I always knew that’s where he would be”.

So begins a tale from McQ you need to read.

Project Hero, is a worthy attempt on McQ’s part to remind us that we have heroes among us. Further, that these need to be honored as such. We at BitsBlog are proud to lend our voice to such a project.

Decided I had such good luck with the theme changeout, that I’d press my luck and attempt the WordPress Upgarde to v2.6.1. All seems well.

Ann Davis in the Wall Street Journal Yesterday:

Data emerging on players in the commodities markets show that speculators are a larger piece of the oil market than previously known, a development enlivening an already tense election-year debate about traders’ influence.

Last month, the main U.S. regulator of commodities trading, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, reclassified a large unidentified oil trader as a “noncommercial” speculator.

The move changed many analysts’ perceptions of the oil market from a more diversified marketplace to one with a heavier-than-thought concentration of financial players who punt on big bets.

As a result, the number of futures and options contracts held by traders counted as speculators — those who don’t have a commercial need to mitigate the risks of energy prices in their business — rose to 49% of all crude-oil bets outstanding on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up from 38%.

We can probably label this one as a “See I told you so” moment. Certainly speculators were identified in these spaces as part of the problem at the off. We said when this rocket ride started that this was not being driven by supply and demand issues. We told you at the time that George Soros was most certainly behind a good deal of the money being played here.  So far, I’ve seen nothing to put me off that particular scent.  So, none of this is a surprise at all.

As a matter of fact, if there’s anything that is surprising about any of this, it’s that the Wall Street Journal decided to put this online.

Whereas I am quite sure that the Democrats are going to be calling for regulation on the trading industry, what really needs to happen here is the Democrats need to come on board with the rest of us and start creating an environment where oil is in no question of being in  plentiful supply. the traders, after all, are simply reacting to market stimuli, which Democrats seemingly are willingly clueless about.

Ben Smith over at The Politco writes:

The executives of a gay sex site are apparently more concerned about the perception that they’re associated with John McCain than McCain is about the association with them.

The chairman of the board of Manhunt, the Cambridge-based hookup site, was forced to resign after reports that he gave $2,300 to McCain.

So, goose-step,  or you’re out, eh? The hypocrisy here is flat-out stunning.  Yes, hypocrisy. Think, now….

The group that spends it’s time (And our tax money) demanding ” tolerance and diversity” cannot possibly tolerate any diversity whatever in political views. It’s like Limbaugh has been saying: liberalism encourages diversity in everything except thought. Here’s a prime example.

Yes, I know what I’m implying, here by the goose stepping remark… indeed, I’ll say it flat out… these are Nazi party tactics here….. the only thing missing is the funny little mustache.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t be changing the themes as often as I have the last couple weekends.

Thing is the last one started acting a little unstable, where the links were concerned.  I think I like this one a little better, anyway… The red was a little harsh… I tend to try and stay away from the shorter wavelenths if I can, for reasons of clarity.

This one took only a little time… perhaps an hour, to set up to my system; A lot less time than the conversion from the old Yellow theme  used to have. It also works with the comments a lot better… that was a major issue with the red theme.

This new one sill needs some work, but it’s pretty close… and a lot farther along to where I’d like the blog to be, than the old one was even with all the work I put into it.

The theme is best viewed at 1024*768. IE and FP both seem to work pretty well.

Comments?

Update: (Bit)

Yeah, this works really well with what we already had. Those writing here will notice that while the tmplate still responds well to the text wrap tricks you’ve been using, it works pretty well if you use the caption framing provided, as well… something the Red theme didn’t do, no matter how I struggled with it.

And you know, that was part of the reason for the change… just so many little things I was putting up with that this one cures. Al, well, live and learn.  Next to change the collection of photographs that  rotates in the upper right. Low priority, but nice I can work on the lower priority stuff now. I was getting frustrated because there were so many high priority items that needed fixing. No more.

Can you tell I’m pleased?