Obama’s Decision Making Process… a Problem?

The Chicago Sun-Times notes the latest in a series of “Hey you… under the bus” plays from Barack Obama. The most recent involves Bernie Mac::

Comedian Bernie Mac got a little too cute when he warmed up the crowd at a Barack Obama fund-raiser in Chicago Friday night.

Obama’s campaign staff attached this preface to the “pool report” filed by the Los Angeles Times reporter allowed to cover the fund-raiser: “Senator Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn’t condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate.”

Well, if he thought it was inappropriate, why’d he invite him in the first place?  What we’re dealing with here is a question of Obama’s choices.  Inviting Bernie Mac to speak at a rally is like Nixon inviting JIm Morrison’s Doors to a command performance at the White House, or Lenny Bruce being invited to Denver this year. It’s like putting a quarter stick in with some lady fingers. Or Bill Clinton inviting Snoop Doggie-Dog. You know eventually there’s going to be a bigger bang. (Pardon the pun)

We need to examine Obama’s decision making process here. Let’s be honest; This is not Mac’s fault; He is, as would be the other cases I mention, simply doing what he got famous for, and his fame was why Obama invited him…. he was hoping some of that fame would rub off on him.  Well, it did… and now Obama’s tossing him under the bus. But wouldn’t you expect someone aspiring to be POTUS to exhibit better decision making ability?  If this business shows us he ability of Obama and his staff to vet perspectives, what does this say about the people who would be serving in a hypothetical  Obama  administration?

I hasten to add, that this is hardly the first time this kind of dance has revealed itself in and around the Obama campaign.  As Bruce intones this morning...”We’re gonna need a bigger bus” This stuff has been going on with Obama since he first popped up on the scene.

Perhaps it should be said, that part of this is the idea that there are very few black celebs… or white ones from the left end of the spectrum for that matter who are as Simon pure on most things as Obama wants to be seen as… and that as such he doesn’t have much in the way of choices of stars to hitch his electoral wagon to. Perhaps, though, that’s of itself indicative of a major cultural rift that Obama doesn’t really want to face up to. The popularity of the people like Mac is exactly because people like Mac are like his fans. They identify with him, and his like. So in reality, Obama is asking for votes from people he’s embarrassed to be around. You just let that one soak in for a few minutes.

Look, let’s break this down; Generally speaking, when a politician tries to associate himself with a entertainment or sports celeb, it’s done in general, because the celeb is more popular among the target audience than the the pol is.  And certainly, this is true of Bernie Mac and Barack Obama.  So how does he react to the celeb?  By tossing him under the bus when he does what he’s asked to do. Clearly, what is happening, here is that Obama wants the fame without what is attached to it.  In short, he wants the good, without the associated bad.

Gee… in a larger sense, that’s sorta like Insisting on gasoline lower prices without allowing for production of the product in question. That’s kinda like insisting we should lower our dependence on foreign oil while not allowing us to do what’s needed to obtain it domestically.  That’s like saying we need more jobs, but then taxing the life out of entities that you’re asking to provide those jobs.  And so on.

I’m not suggesting that this trend is one unique to Democrats, but it does seem particularly attached to the left end of both parties.  And again, I say, the decision making ability of such folks does seem an issue… particularly if they want to lead this nation.

Obama, if he wants to get really serious about this, is going to have to set his mind to the fact that when you ask for something, you get the whole thing, not just the more desirable pieces. However, I doubt we’re going to see that level of “Aha” coming from camp Obama in the next few weeks. So perhaps then, it’s up to we, the people, to decide that Obama’s decision making ability is wanting.

Yeah, I know… Who?

I’ll bet Billy Beck knows the name, though. From the New York Times

Ruth Greenglass, whose damning testimony in the Rosenberg atomic-bomb spy case of the early 1950s helped lead to the execution of her sister-in-law Ethel Rosenberg, died on April 7. She was 84.

Mrs. Greenglass’s testimony was later called into question.

Well, yeah, that’s pretty much the angle I’d expect the paper of Walter Duranty to take.

If you’re curious about that testimony, a lot of it is here.

From Newsroom America:

A federal judge in Detroit has blocked oil and gas exploration near a forest and a river in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula.

The U.S. Forest Service had given permission to Savoy Energy LP of Traverse City in 2005 to begin exploration, but U.S. District Judge David Lawson ruled Thursday the agency had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in doing so.

The proposed wellhead would be located in the Huron-Manistee National Forest. The site is about three-tenths of a mile from the Mason Tract, a 4,679-acre wilderness area prized by anglers and other outdoor recreationists, said reports.

Forest officials said when awarding the contract that the Savoy project wouldn’t significantly damage the area and the company had to keep noise to a minimum.

But Lawson said in his decision the Forest Service didn’t consider how degrading the area could harm tourism. He said further the agency did a “woefully inadequate” job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland’s warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.

I wonder if this judge has ever thought about what people use to get to tourist areas, and how they’re supposed to get there without it?

HOUSTON, July 12 (Reuters) – Surgeon Michael DeBakey, whose ground-breaking heart transplants and coronary bypass operations made him one of the giants of 20th century medicine, has died at age 99.

The Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital said DeBakey died on Friday of natural causes. Methodist Hospital in Houston was his primary surgical hospital for many years.

In a career that spanned more than seven decades, DeBakey developed a number of new surgical procedures that now are standard in treating heart ailments and led many to consider him the father of modern cardiovascular surgery.

It seems safe to say tha if you’ve had any kind of heart surgery, you owe your life to this man.

Barack Obama appears to be losing ground in the polling data, which Ed Morrissey notes this morning:

Last month, Newsweek’s poll surprised many by showing a huge gap between Barack Obama and John McCain, with the Democratic nominee-apparent enjoying a 15-point lead over the Republican.  One month later, Obama has lost all of the momentum and has dropped into a virtual tie with McCain.  The latest Newsweek poll shows Obama up 44-41, within the margin of error:

A month after emerging victorious from the bruising Democratic nominating contest, some of Barack Obama‘s glow may be fading. In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the Illinois senator leads Republican nominee John McCain by just 3 percentage points, 44 percent to 41 percent. The statistical dead heat is a marked change from last month’s NEWSWEEK Poll, where Obama led McCain by 15 points, 51 percent to 36 percent.

Obama’s rapid drop comes at a strategically challenging moment for the Democratic candidate. Having vanquished Hillary Clinton in early June, Obama quickly went about repositioning himself for a general-election audience-an unpleasant task for any nominee emerging from the pander-heavy primary contests and particularly for a candidate who’d slogged through a vigorous primary challenge in most every contest from January until June. Obama’s reversal on FISA legislation, his support of faith-based initiatives and his decision to opt out of the campaign public-financing system left him open to charges he was a flip-flopper. In the new poll, 53 percent of voters (and 50 percent of former Hillary Clinton supporters) believe that Obama has changed his position on key issues in order to gain political advantage.

More seriously, some Obama supporters worry that the spectacle of their candidate eagerly embracing his old rival, Hillary Clinton, and traveling the country courting big donors at lavish fund-raisers, may have done lasting damage to his image as an arbiter of a new kind of politics. This is a major concern since Obama’s outsider credentials, have, in the past, played a large part in his appeal to moderate, swing voters. In the new poll, McCain leads Obama among independents 41 percent to 34 percent, with 25 percent favoring neither candidate. In June’s NEWSWEEK Poll, Obama bested McCain among independent voters, 48 percent to 36 percent.

There’s a few technical reasons why that polling may be showing a slightly wider gap than really exists, but that still doesn’t explain the shift in direction, particularly among the independant voters, among whom, Obama has lost 14 points… well outside the margin of error. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues.

Fox News:

Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary and conservative pundit who bedeviled the press corps and charmed millions as a FOX News television and radio host, died Saturday after a long bout with cancer. He was 53.

A syndicated columnist, editor, TV anchor, radio show host and musician, Snow worked in nearly every medium in a career that spanned more than 30 years.

Tony had class.   Nobody ever did a better job as presidential press secretary.   Rest in Peace Tony.   You will be missed.

Edit: (Bit) Changed feed. Editorial judgment. I just thought it more appropriate to link the Fox site, given that’s where Tony was most famously associated with. Besides, Fox has video posted at the link, of HUme’s remarks on Snow’s passing.

The Wall Street Journal:

IndyMac Bank, a prolific mortgage specialist that helped fuel the housing boom, was seized Friday by federal regulators, in the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

IndyMac is the biggest mortgage lender to go under since a fall in housing prices and surge in defaults began rippling through the economy last year — and it likely won’t be the last. Banking regulators are bracing for a slew of failures over the next year as analysts say housing prices have yet to bottom out.

Frankly I think this somewhat overblown. IndyMac specialised in a particular segment of the market; Those who really didn’t qualify for a mortgage. I’ve been saying for some time that what failures occurred would be specifically due to the trend of the federal and state government to push issuing such loans on the idea that  it was some sort of panacea cure for racial discrimination.

That said, however, the immidiate cause of the damage be traced to one man… Chuckles Schumer., and we have already blogged about that one, last week:

Sen. Charles E. Schumer publicly taunted bank regulators last week about IndyMac Bancorp’s financial condition, which helped trigger a sudden outflow of deposits from the Pasadena thrift. Now the New York Democrat is getting some harsh blowback from one current and one former regulator.

Their message, distilled: Zip it, Chuck.

As noted here on Monday, Schumer sent letters to the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. anhttp://bitsblog.florack.us/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/schumer_charles.jpgd the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, saying he was “concerned that IndyMac’s financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers.”

IndyMac, which has suffered huge losses on defaulted mortgage loans, “could face a failure if prescriptive measures are not taken quickly,” Schumer wrote.

Uh, wait a minute — how could Schumer know that? And since when are regulators supposed to tell the public in advance that a particular institution has been earmarked for failure? All that would do is guarantee a collapse. If depositors are within FDIC insurance limits they have nothing to worry about, anyway.

That pretty much sums up the content of a letter to Schumer today from John M. Reich, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision.

“As a regulator of insured depository institutions, we do not publicly comment on the financial condition or supervisory activities related to open and operating institutions,” Reich wrote. “We believe it is critically important to maintain the confidentiality of examination and supervision information.”

That’s Tom Petruno of the LA Times blog.

He went on: “Dissemination of incomplete or erroneous information can erode public confidence, mislead depositors and investors, and cause unintended consequences, including depositor runs and panic stock trades. Rumors and innuendo cause damage to financial institutions that might not occur otherwise and these concerns drive our strict policy of privacy.”

Ya know, one would almost think that what Schumer is about is eroding public confidence in the economy. Now why do you suppose he’d want to do that? Why would Schumer, a Democrat from as far to the left end of the scale as one might imagine, want to erode public economic confidence during a Republican administration, and during an election year?

Gee, I wonder.

Aside from the rather nasty implications of that, one also must wonder if Schumer profits from this in terms of stock holdings in IndyMac’s competition. But however that falls out, this was nothing but market manipulation from his government perch… along with the use of government provided insider information, for which Schumer should stand trial, and prison. And keep in mind, I live in New York State.

The stampede of withdrawals that went on for over a week and caused the bank to collapse, started within a few hours of Schumer’s statement. How direct his guilt is is for others to decide, but he must bear at least part of the blame for this collapse. With the collapse of IndyMac, I’m more convinced that Schumer should be hauled up before a court for his misdeeds and see jailtime.

As such, I’m going to urge fellow bloggers to demand an investigation into the role of Schumer into the collapse of this institution, with an eye toward criminal charges.

Addendum: (Bit) Redstate has picked up a report that says Schumer is already being cited by the fed as the cause of the collapse. As Redstate suggests:

This is huge — that a federal regulatory agency would precisely finger a United States Senator as being responsible for a present financial disaster.

Indeed. Trouble is, Schumer’s a Democrat, and the Democrat congress will not hold him accountable without serious an unending pressure.

Addendum][:(Bit) This post made it to Reuters via Blogburst Thanks.

Addendum III:(Bit) This post made it to Google’s Financial page. Thanks

The New York Times reports that rank corruption has its priviledges:

While aggressive evictions are reducing the number of rent-stabilized apartments in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan in a building owned by one of New York’s premier real estate developers.Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.

Charlie is getting four apartments at below market prices,  and forcing three families to live on the street.

JammieWearingFool, makes a humble suggestion:

It would be a noble gesture of the hypocrite to give up three of his posh pads so some needy families could find shelter.

Nah. It’ll never happen, because he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone but himself

And just think, Mrs. Pelosi had promised to drain the swamp.

?

• I have to wonder if the mostly manufactured response over Gramm’s comments as I mentioned this morning, isn’t an effort to squelch the noise over Jessie Jackson’s call to castrate Obama.
• Ya know, speaking of Jackson… I had a passing thought last night about him, while reading this. No, really. And the line of thought was, look, Jackson’s pissed because he sees Obama as busting up gravy train. Jackson’s made a career out of the message of victimhood. Obama’s doing better than Jackson ever did, while not playing victim, for now. So, with the link, Mother nature will not die, but the financial stranglehold of the Gaia worshipers will. Maybe that’s why theiir tone is so simlar.
• Speaking of that, you can tell that they know they’re losing when this come up with nonsensical arguments like this one. I have to tell you Boortz nails this one, this morning:
  

  Democrats understand that there is a strong likelihood that oil prices will drop – perhaps a lot – if the United States announces that we’re opening up ANWR, the Florida Gulf Coast, the outer continental shelf, the oil shale lands out west and other areas to oil exploration and recovery. OPEC countries would immediately put downward pressure on prices in hopes that they could derail or forestall the new American effort. Democrats also know that the voters in this country have this nasty tendency to blame – or credit – the party controlling the White House for good and bad economic news. Democrats won’t do anything that might allow the Republicans to look good … even if you have to pay five bucks a gallon for gas.

  And let’s remember who is really responsible for the price hikes, here. Democrats… as you see in the graphic David posted from See-Dubya yesterday.  Of course, they’ll never mention this because simply put they have no rational excuse for it.

• 
• BEER!
• I see McCain picked up another $22M last month. He’s got $95M in the bank, now. Combine that with the $68M the RNC has, and you’re talking a fair bit of change. These are figures Obama can’t compete with. Last I saw the figures (Which admittedly may ahve changed since last I looked) most of the money was coming from sub-$1000 donors.
• OK, granted, this is an issue. But is anyone under the ilusion that this is anything new? That this is news?  Why?  Oh, yeah. Election year, and they’re trying to pin blame on Republicans. I keep forgetting.
• Similar reasons behind all the “Woe is me” posting going on around the sphere today, and in the op-ed sections about the suppsoedly crappy economy, on the heels of the markets dropping below 11000. For about 10 minutes.  Of course since they were written about mid-day, right in the midst of that low, they couldn’t possibly have told you that the market rebounded to about 11220, and then settled down at around 11130, and in total only lost about100 pts or under 1% for the day.   The reading over the last  10 days shows an overall loss of 126.28 pts or 1.12% of the total. Over the last six months, the totals are off by 122.78 or 1.09%.  Similarly, the totals for the lst year’s worth of trading shows a loss of 124.65, or 1.11% of market value.  Now, f you add in the numbers for the year before that, the numbers don’t change at all… 124.74 is the loss… or 1.14%.  In other words, today was no great shakes. So much for the end of the world. Look; I’m not blowing sunshine into your cavity, here.  But qut with the nonsense about how it’s all crashing around your ears. It’s not. It’s just not.
• Go to maps.google.com. Go to a major town. Or, say, you can go to Rochester NY, which is as close to my hometown as no matter. Find any street wrapped in blue on the map and go to street view.Poke around with the controls provided you.  Rather cool, I think.  In the pic I’ve posted here you can see how they do that. I had an idea it was something of the sort.  Now, check this Daily Mail article where the pic comes from.  Sorry, I don’t see this as being a major problem.  I mean, are we worried that your car is going to be photographed in the driveway of your paramoor for your wife to find? Are you sunbathing nude in the front yard?  Come on, gang. You’re not going to see anything here you won’t see on the street. Often, you’ll see less… the photography isn’t all that high a resolution. Go and play with the thing and see if you don’t agree. Let us know. I’m sorry, gang… I don’t see this as an issue.  I just don’t.
• Just a word of advice to the moron calling himself PZ Myers: I’d not worry about the death threats. After what you’ve done it’s what comes after you die that should be of greater concern for you. To the rest, Confederate Yankee can give you a little background.
• Finally, have you visited Conservative Grapevine lately?

I commented earlier this week that I had my doubts about Jesse Jackson’s open-mike trick.

What if this comment of Jackson’s was staged to give Obama some white street creds?

Normally, I’d not give the man credit for being able to take part in any kind of coordinated effort, including arranging a lunch.  But with results like I saw this morning, and assuming of course this one guy I overheard this morning, wasn’t unique, it could hardly have been planned better.

So imagine the smile on my face when I note in the NY Post, today, an article from Charles Hurt:

Jackson’s claim to have been caught unbeknownst by a “hot mike” slurring and threatening Barack Obama is complete hogwash.

Somewhere, deep down, he wanted the world – and Obama – to know how much he wants to “cut his nuts out.”

Veterinarians and doctors talk about cutting nuts “off.” Only a thug or a gangster cuts a man’s nuts “out.”

And Jackson knows better than most the vicious symbolism of castration and its blood-soaked link to lynchings in the Old South.

Nor is this the first time Jackson bared his anger. Last year, when Obama wasn’t sufficiently politicizing the beating prosecution of six black teens in Louisiana known as the “Jena Six,” Jackson said Obama was “acting white.”

What accounts for Jackson’s latest animosity toward the Democratic nominee? He said it’s because Obama was “talking down to black folks.”

In a Father’s Day speech, Obama told black churchgoers that a father’s responsibility “doesn’t just end at conception.”

“What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child – any fool can have a child,” Obama said. “It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”

Maybe this struck a little too close to home for the Rev. Jackson, who just a few years ago finally owned up to fathering a child outside of his marriage even as he was busy counseling President Bill Clinton on his dalliances with a White House intern.

Well, yeah. I mean, when taken in the context of the remainder of the article, Hurt is taking on a decided pro-Obama tilt here, and  he clearly still thinks Obama a “uniter”, which of course is utter hogwash, in Hurt’s own terms.   But it’s amazing, to me the change that’s come about… how quickly and viciously Jackson is getting tossed under the Obama bus, here. Certainly something that wouldn’t have happened a few years ago. 

I wonder a bit; though. Just because he’s getting tossed now, doesn’t mean he isn’t going to be back in good graces once Obama loses the election. Or, for that matter if by some evil fluke, he manages to win the thing.   If he loses, the politics of resentment will be back in full swing, from the grass roots level.   If on the other hand, he manages to win, the politics of resentment (Can you say ‘reparations?’) will then have presidential powers behind it, and all the posturing on the matter will be what’s under the bus.

¼/p>

From the mailbag this morning:
‘Nuff said.

Former Sen. Phil Gramm, a top economic adviser to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, referred to the economic slowdown as “a mental recession” and called the United States “a nation of whiners.”

The comments, in an interview with The Washington Times, could hurt the campaign’s efforts to convince working-class Americans that McCain feels their pain.

McCain strongly disavowed the comments today , saying Phil Gramm “does not speak for me — I speak for me.”

“So I strongly disagree,” McCain told reporters gathered for a press conference.

Democrats immediately condemned the remarks as “callous” and quickly began working to divert widespread attention to them.

So reported The Politico, last night.

Well, let’s get a few things straight, shall we?

1: We’re not in a  recession. Welcome to ‘words mean things’. A recession is a period of general economic decline; specifically, a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters. We’ve not reached that point yet. That may or may not happen, but if so, it has not yet.  So, use of the word recession is a lie.

2a:Note that the people who have been so calling it are all Democrats.

2b: Note also that this is an election year.

2c: Note that past the cyclical nature of economies, the greatest contibutor to our current economic situation is Democrat policy, as regards mortages, taxes and energy, to name three. Of course they’ll never tell you this.

3: The description of it being a mental recession is quite accurate, given the Democrats have spent most of the last 8 years complaining about how this is the worst economy since Hoover, despite the numbers not supporting the argument. Keep telling a lie like that long enough and the lie becomes it’s own reality. All for the political purpose of the Democrats.

4: McCain is dead wrong to have backed off the Gramm statement, for the reasons listed. And of course McCain made exactly the wrong move by playing into the Democrat party’s hands on this.

Addendum: This post made Real Clear Politics “Best of the Blogs”. Thanks.

There is yet another racial controvery born out of sheer ignorance, video link.   Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price insists the term ‘black hole” is racist, partial transcipt:

Price: “Can I get an apology, from this day and time (pounding his fist on the table), you don’t sit at a table, where you have diversity, and refer to a black hole!”

Mayfield: Well, sure I do. It’s terminology. It’s a science term

Price is full of it.

Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry:

black hole

Function:

noun

Date:

1968

1: a celestial object that has a gravitational field so strong that light cannot escape it and that is believed to be created especially in the collapse of a very massive star2: something resembling a black hole: as a: something that consumes a resource continually <a financial black hole> b: an empty space : void

 

Michelle offers a pithy summation:

The ignorance and sanctimony of John Wiley Price are something to behold

Clayton Cramer:

You know, the argument for requiring a certain minimum level of education or knowledge to vote or hold public office looks better and better. My guess is that the standard would not have to be very high to exclude John Wiley Price from holding office

Price is free to use the term black to refer to his race.   Such is his right.   Wher Price is wrong, is in demanding that the term black always refers to race.  It not does.   For example, the term black humor does not refer to Sanford and Son.

• How busy has our Congress been, this current session? Here you go. No, I’m not impressed either. Well, actually, I am… that they’re still not in jail.
• Democrats are finally starting to reverse course… at least publicly, about increased domestic drilling. Still dragging their feet, though. Still don’t quite get it. But never let it be said that their finger guages aren’t working. Bruce has more on this, as does The Politico. So has Billy.
  

  “I’m not knee-jerk opposed to anything,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “We’re willing to work. We haven’t shut our minds to anything.”

  You can smell the sheer rat-weezil panic in that, just reading it and not even having to hear it or look at his face while he’s saying it. It’s right out of “Atlas Shrugged”.

  Sure is. I think the deer in the headlights look is somewhat muted because they have no clue what they’re up against, as shown in another quote Billy pulls:

  “If they were showing in good faith that they were drilling on some of the 68 million acres they have now, it might change some of our attitudes,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

  Throw that wolf a bone for admitting her “attitude”. Meanwhile, chalk this up as the Lost Car Keys Theory of Bureaubotic Investment Diktat: you look for the oil where they let you in the same way that you look for your car keys under the streetlight because, well, the light’s better there.

  Look, I’m going to show you something you may not have noticed. At no times do these idiots ever once show facts and figures about how much oil is in the spots mentioned. There’s a reason for that. There’s more oil in Nancy Pelosi’s canned Tuna plant in American Samoa, than there is where the Congresional Democrats are insisting the companies drill. The fact is that the Democrats are dealing from a busted flush, and half of them are too stupid to know it. It would all be quite amusing if we weren’t paying the price at the pump. Billy’s right, though; What this boils down to is the left’s anti-production, anti-Freedom, (and in the end, I add anti-American) attitudes. The Republicans need to be hammering on this stuff, and I’m angry they’re not doing so nearly as much as they should. Billy will tell you too many of them are dirty on it, too, and he’s right.

• Neat story about the  Marine seeing the birth of his kid via the net. Freedom Calls put this together. Kudos to them. You may wanna consider hitting their jar.
• See this nonsense about the guy who quit his job instead of honoring Jesse Helms by lowering the flag to half staff? Well, actually, he took a retirement. Far as I’m concerned the guy should have been fired, and denied retirement,a nd possibly faced jailtime, or some other form of punsihment for his misdeed. . Make statments about Helms if you like; that’s certainly your right. But refusing a lawful order of the Govenor? Sorry, that doesn’t wash with me, and I think we set a bad example, not reacting more harshly to this.
• I’m still chuckling that Obama voted for the FISA amendments.
• And it pleases me no end that the New York Times is having it’s backside handed to it in a bag.
• Finally, I note Olivia Newton-John got married again. Good for her. After all the garbage she’s been through in her life the last 20 years or so, I’m glad to see she’s got reason to smile, again.   Only one problem. The story reports her as being 59. Jeez, does that ever bring me up short. OK, granted I was playing her stuff on radio back in the 70’s, when I was consdiering she was quite the dish.  No, not in the “Grease” persona, thanks, that was a little over the top for me. But the pic here, for example, is enough to melt about anyone who was musically active in the middle 70’s.  And aging is the natural progression, of course! But I won’t deny that little bit of information jarred me just a little bit. Kinda puts your own mortality in frame, I suppose.

¼/p>

I spoke last night to this insulting speech from Obama about how we all need to be bilingual.

 : So does Kaus who says, in part, in a post script:

 Obama’s lecture to parents about how “you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish”? Also condescending! Especially since, as Abe Greenwald points out, Obama doesn’t speak Spanish. … He’s insultingly missing the point about the need for a common language, of course. If we want a common language, and the common language of Americans is English, then learning Spanish, however beneficial, is not going to achieve that goal. It’s perfectly reasonable for native English speakers to worry if enough new immigrants whose ethnic leaders demand bilingual education will learn English. They probably will, but Obama’s saying it’s wrong to even worry about it. … [via Corner] … And then there’s the whole embarrassed-by-boorish-Americans-who-don’t-know-French riff. A provien vote-getter!

In response to my complaint that we’ve not seen Obama saying in the past that Immigrants need to learn English, Knapp makes the point in OTB comments that Obama has in fact played the angle of ‘They need to learn English’ in the past. Note the sources he taps, however… none of them from MSM sources. Meaning, Obama said it, but it didn’t get much covered; He never got much liberal traction with it, and therefore never got press. It’s on his websites and still on talkleft which has historically been in the tank for Obama, but that’s all.  Knapps’ snark and the implications of that aside,  apparently, we have yet another case of Obama changing horses. Which in turn raises another point…

Frankly I’m unconvinced Obama himself actually thinks this way, nor do I see this statement of Obama’s of itself the biggest story.  For one thing, he’s changed his official position on things in the last few months so often often there seems no doubt his statements are now finger guage, focus group and poll driven, not driven by any personal belief structure on his part… certainly, the only principle being applied are the ones being fed him by the team trying to regain the WH for the Democrats.  With all the constantly changing of opinion from him we’ve no proof if he even beleives what he says or not.

Notice, please, that in those instances that Knapp points up, he gained nearly no traction with it in the press. Going the other way seems to have attracted him rather more attention from the press and support from his base.He’s trying to say what he thnks his base wants to hear. It’s what his supporters think… the opinions of whose votes he’s pandering for, that I find troubling. He’s just pulling the Clintonesque move of trying to figure out which way the parade is going, so he can be in front, and so appear to be LEADING said parade come voting time.

 Memeorandum is tracking this stuff, of course.