Blog Work

Upgraded to 2.51 tonight. Auto-upgrade still isn’t ready for prime time, but long as you know it’s gonna crash, it does OK. It actually got 90% done, this time, so the last auto-upgrade patch does work a bit better.

Played with the background colors a bit. Scheme came off a little bright, so I put it back. I’ll re-work that as I get time tommorow.

I did get the buttons up over the header, so that space is used a bit more effectively. Smooths things out a little. Move the hitcounter to the header. Since it’s a script handling it’s placement is a little rough. I’ll be working on that. Normal backup/cleanup chores, too.

Enough. I’m going to bed.

• Ya know, some folks simply don’t learn from history. “Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don’t elect Democrats,” Limbaugh said on yesterday’s’s show, saying also, that’s the best thing that could happen to the country.  Of course the left is having spasms, saying Limbaugh is calling for riots. Actually, no, Leftards. Pick up a book and learn from your own history.  Given Chicago ’68, he’s not calling for them, he’s PREDICTING them. And don’t think the police in Denver aren’t thinking along those same lines. There’s a lot of other parallels between this year and ’68, as I’ve suggested before.
• A thought occurs: How bad does someone have to be, to lose to a known liar with negatives as near as 50% as no matter, while spending twice as much as she does? Such a candidate is Obama. So abhorrant is he that half the party is giving it’s suport to Hillary Clinton, whose misdeeds helped to define her husband’s misadministrattion. .  The Democrats are just now starting to figure out that things are not all beer and skittles for November. It’s comical to wacth this train wreck, but annoying that if enough stupid people get together, the whole world will be inflicted with one of them. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large enough numbers.
• Found in my mailbox this morning:
  

  ‘We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.
  On one side, you have a lawyer who is married to a lawyer, and a lawyer who is married to a lawyer.
  On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a blonde with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.
  Is there a contest here?’

  Well,… ummmm… yeah.

• A little rain this weekend, and I’ve got lots of yardwork on the plate. Cooler next week. So much for summer.
• Speaking of summer, I’ve got work to do on the camper, as well. The pipes need flushing… gotta get rid of the RV anti-freeze… that pink stuff.  Gotta shock the tanks, clean the inside, make a few repairs, and so on. My guess is I’ll be able to sue the thing a few times this year… mostly after the midsummer oil meltdown i’ve been predicting. Gas prices or no, it’s still cheaper to trailer as we do, but I can’t imagine there won’t be travel industry fallout from the prices on the leading edge of this summer.
• Whizbang makes a point of SITYS regarding North Korea and Syria. Yeah, I have to admit it; It’s justified, I guess. But if so, so is this reminder. And this one… with photos yet And this one. Of greater import, perhaps is this one. And his one, too, where Iran’s involvement with Syria and Noth Korea are discussed within the context of nukes.  And best of all, the 2004 post about the Syrians on that Munitions train that blew up… along with this one the day before. You get the idea. Mind, I’m not slighting Whizbang in the slightest. they’re right to take credit for pointing this stuff out.  But this stuff is only unknown insofar a the MSM hasn’t been reporting on it. If Lowly BitsBlog has been pushing this info for over 4 years now, who is it the MSM needs a big announcemnet from the CIA to be presnting it?

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Interesting word from basra by way of the London Times:

Young women are daring to wear jeans, soldiers listen to pop music on their mobile phones and bands are performing at wedding parties again.

All across Iraq’s second city life is improving, a month after Iraqi troops began a surprise crackdown on the black-clad gangs who were allowed to flourish under the British military. The gunmen’s reign had enforced a strict set of religious codes.

Yet after three years of being terrified of kidnap, rape and murder – a fate that befell scores of other women – Nadyia Ahmed, 22, is among those enjoying a sense of normality, happy for the first time to attend her science course at Basra University. “I now have the university life that I heard of at high school before the war and always dreamt about,” she told The Times. “It was a nightmare because of these militiamen. I only attended class three days a week but now I look forward to going every day.”

She also no longer has to wear a headscarf. Under the strict Islamic rules imposed by the militias, women had to cover their hair, could not wear jeans or bright clothes and were strictly forbidden from sitting next to male colleagues on pain of death.

“All these men in black [who imposed the laws] just vanished from the university after this operation,” said Ms Ahmed. “Things have completely changed over the past week.”

In a sign of the good mood, celebratory gunfire erupted around Basra two nights ago and text messages were pinged from one mobile phone to another after an alleged senior militia leader was arrested.

I urge you to go read the whole article.

Tell us again, leftards, how this is a failure.

If life were fair, Elvis would be alive
and his impersonators would be dead.

The Campaign Spot, earlier today, says:

Liberal radio talk show host Ed Schultz calls John McCain a warmonger at an Obama rally, and the Obama campaign issues a terse statement that he shouldn’t be called that term (and oh by the way, our candidate opposed the Iraq war from the start.

Obama’s top surrogate in West Virginia, Senator Jay Rockefeller, insults all fighter pilots and suggests that McCain doesn’t care about the lives of people on the ground because he dropped bombs during his wartime service. What’s the response?

“Senator Obama has a deep respect for Senator McCain’s service to this country and doesn’t agree with what Senator Rockefeller said,” said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

We never see Obama denounce any of these remarks, (heaven forbid he do so in front of a camera like McCain does) or ever call anyone out as inappropriate.

The DNC chops up McCain’s quote, and Obama doesn’t object. A liberal group makes a web ad mocking McCain’s age, and Obama doesn’t object. Jimmy Carter goes overseas to hug Hamas leaders, and Obama says he doesn’t approve, but he can’t do anything about it.

One guy says he’s going to unite the country, and is running on hope, but when his surrogates try to kneecap an opponent, we get these milquetoast disapproving statements from press aides. But when somebody on McCain’s team does something that’s even remotely controversial, the senator denounces it in front of the cameras.

Well, that may be the tactic, but I’m not sure I see the value in it. At the bottom line, what you’re doing is legitimizing such morons as Wright. Let’s see, here, Wright denouces the use of the Wright quotes, and so does Mccain? Who would have projected someone like Mccain coming down on the same side of the issue as Wright?

Well…. we did here, if you really want to know. This is exactly the kind of nonsense that both David and I had comments on since McCain’s hat got tossed into the ring this go-round.

Says Campaign Spot:

One guy walks the walk, the other guy just talks the talk. And the frustrated independents, exhausted from nasty politics, will notice this.

But WHAT walk? Or, more precisely, WHOSE walk? Isn’t this exactly what the Democrats have been demanding all along… that the Republicans disarm, while Democrats continue to to oppo research?

KJL doesn’t buy the argument, and thinks that this is simply a habit with McCain… and I agree with that read; it IS a habit, and a bad one, but by no means is it a strategy. Even if it works out this cycle, it sets a bad precident going forward.

Addendum:  (David L)

Jim’s point is that while BO is fighting to get to Mrs. Clinton’s left, McPain broadening his appeal to the moderates.   As indicated by the Karl Rove Snark of the Day, BO has no record to support his rhetoric. 

“I don’t know why they’re calling it offensive. I call it truthful”

North Carolina Republican Party Charman, Linda Daves defending her Jerimiah Wright ad, via Michelle Malkin.

Apparently, the Obama camp has decided that backtracking… actually wearing the flag pion, claiming fealty to America, and creating feel-good images of Jeramiah Wright, is the only way that they’re going to get out of the box they’ve been set into  THe trick they’re trying with Jeremiah Wright is to try and cast him as a victim of a media smear campaign. Only one problem with that: Jeremiah Wright, himself. Courtesy of Marc Armbinder:

BILL MOYERS:

In the 20 years that you’ve been his pastor, have you ever heard him repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?

REVEREND WRIGHT:

No. No. No. Absolutely not.

I don’t talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.

Look, I’ll comment on that slithering snake Moyers at another time… but even in that liberal- friendly environment, this comes out.  And of course, Mr Wright is now telling us that we should believe him and not our lying ears, that his words were taken out of context and twisted… though he fails in explaining under what context such comments as he made would ever be acceptable, and why they’d have been acceptable to him, and perhaps of greater import, why they would be acceptable to Obama and his wife. Given the other associations that Obama has yet to answer for, (Ayers, etc,) and the one I wrote about yesterday, the pattern is all too clearly anti-American… and Wright amounts to only a small part of that.

Read that passage again:

“He’s a politician, I’m a pastor,” he said. “We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they’re two different worlds.”

He added, “I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as a politician.”

So what is Wright saying? Obama’s a liar?
OK, I guess I can buy that.

• This has been on my radar screen for a while. But that’s where it has stayed. I’ve been frozen by it and haven’t written a word on it. Apparently that is also where it has stayed, if it got that far, for most bloggers and their underlings in the mainstream media, aka journalists. (Yes, I haven’t told you what it is yet because, as simply as it can be stated, the thing is too large to easily grasp.)
  David Pryce-Jones brings us up to speed about how the European Union, undaunted by the will of the people of individual European nations, will accommodate itself without them:

Well, of COURSE, Martin. That was always the point of the thing, and is exactly what the opponents said of the EU, as the various countries were singing over their sovereignty to that Brussels monster.The whole idea was that none of the countries, or the people in them would be able to have their say. I’ve been saying it for as many years as it was being considered and pursued, and loudest when Tony Blair was busy doing his thing.

The concept of criminals running the place as Billy points out tonight, is of a piece with what we’ve been seeing of the Democrats of late. The Clintons for example, and Obama. I’ve no doubt the both of them will be getting along with them splendidly, should they actually, God help us, attain power. And yes, there’s a lot of implication in that statement.

The freedom of the people under the banner of the EU is now a lost cause, of course. But there’s additional problems, problems for the USgiven that via NATO and other treaties, our friends are now far less likely to be able to respond to a military situation. And given the Iran/Sriya link, such conflict seems likely. (Domination by left-leaners tends to preclude such responses) The implications for the future of that half of the world are incalculably bad.

J* oyner started this mess

Media Bloggers Association president Robert Cox argues in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed that the line between “citizen” and “journalist” has become so blurred as to have all but disappeared.

This issue has reared its head again because of the so-called “Bittergate” episode.

Well, let’s be precise. This issue came up because Obama supporters don’t like him being held up to what he says. Despite implications to the contrary that was not ‘yellow journalism’ Unless you’re going to suggest the tape of what he said was edited somehow)… No, that was reporting.
Look, frankly I’m not at all convinced it’s worthwhile starting up the lines again between professional jouranlist and Blogger, and particularly over something like this. The man got caught with his shorts around his ankles. (OK, yeah, I know, that’s Clinton’s schtik.) The such reports would not have been made is to me a great indication of why nobody takes professional journalists seriously anymore. Professionalism? Please. Are CBS/NBC/ABC/CNN/NYT to be held up as professionals? I’m not sure much value can be had from professionalism, if these are the standard.

The advent of blogs and other self-published media turned us full circle to the days of the pamphleteers. Most citizen journalists are untrained and, frankly, most are rather poor.

No less poor, I’m afraid than what the MSM has been for the last 40 some odd years. But you know what? The marketplace seems to have had an effect on this, if we’re to take the impending demise of the big three, and the NYT, and the poor ratings of MSNBC, and CNN, and the massive rise of Blogs as any indication.

The citizen “journalists” as you mention who are poor, are similarly blessed with low hitrates. That free market thing again.

And let’s while I think of it, discriminate between ‘journalists’ and “News people”.
A News person writes down the news. A journalist writes down what he thinks. The biggest problem the press of today has, particularly the MSM I mentioned, is here those lines get blurred.

Look at the definition of journalist in the link I’ve just provided. Nowhere in any of the definitions will you see the word ‘news’. By contrast, look at newsman.

Blogs do not have that much of a problem, for the most part.. I estimate that 90% of the popular political blogs are doing opinion… iIE journalism… not news reporting. True, they mention current events by means of repeating what the news wires say, but most of heir time and emph is on rendering opinion-oriented analysis on those events. Your blog, James, is that way, and so it mine.

I make no pretense to being a news person. I am, however, a journalist by the definitions the dictionary provides us. But I am by no means impressed that we should accord any special treatment to professional ‘journalists’. Particularly if the the quality of ‘professional’ journalists involves ignoring the type of story the blogger caught, in this case.

• Yes, I moved SiteMeter. Reason: Perhaps 20 0r 30 people are coming in daily via mobile devices. These people are served by a seperate page that  the BitsBlog server generates when it sees it’s dealing with something other than a standard browser, such as a mobile phone, or a Palm, or something. That script however, did not contain the counter, because of it’s placement in the sidebar, and those hits were not getting counted. This move should solve that issue.

Did Mrs. Pelosi discover some long lost book of the Bible and is she simply delusional?   According Mrs. Pelosi the Bible calls for us to:

 “To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.”

Attribution:  Dr. Claude Mariottini.

Further, Mrs. Pelosi has not made this supposed Biblical assertion not once but at least four times.

Dr. Mariottini:

Somebody should tell the Speaker that her words of wisdom from the Bible are not in the Bible.

And more, Michelle Malkin:

Dr. Claude Mariottini, an Old Testament scholar, noted on his blog last year and this year that no such Biblical verse exists.

CNS News asked other Bible scholars for the source of the quote in the Old Testament that Nancy Pelosi keeps invoking.

They can’t find it either.

So Mrs. Pelosi know almost as much about the Bible, she is so fond of quoting, as she knows about diplomacy and fashion.  To wit, zilch.

Question for Mrs. Pelosi, if your personal version of the Bible calls for ministering to God’s creations, how can explain your support for abortion, the deliberate killing of God’s creations?

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Newsday:

In an interview yesterday, Hillary — whose connection to President Clinton’s 2001 sentence commutations for two members of the Weather Underground has become an issue since she tried to raise questions about Obama’s acquaintance with another ex-Weatherman — told “Inside Edition” that she “didn’t know anything about” the 2001 clemency case.

You can watch the video below. If it’s true, it means that she got the worst briefings in the world when she was running for Senate in 2000 and the clemency issue was hot in Rockland County, and it means that Chuck Schumer didn’t even bother to mention the issue to his fellow NY senator-elect/ First Lady after promising the widows of two dead cops to fight against one of the clemencies.

They get into some serious details, laying out the timelines. Make no mistake, here, dear reader. I am not supporting Obama in this, Obama should be disqualified from office for his willing associations with terrorists and anti-American activists.

But if that’s true, what of Hillary Clinton?

And for that matter, what of Chuckles The Clown Schumer, for his role in this?

Addendum: (David L)

I have a strong urge to swear, but I shall bit my tongue[ouch].  You know for a person who claims to be qualified on the basis of experience, Mrs. Clinton sure is mighty ignorant.  LIke BO said earlier in the campaign, Mrs. Clinton takes credit when it is convenient and plays dumb when the truth to too hard to handle.  LIke I have said before, the Clinton are habiitual liars, but not are not good liars.

That the theme that the ‘rats in general, and Mrs. Clinton and BO in particular are weak on the War on Terror has been made here before.  Else where, Michelle make the same point.  She puts up a great chart by See-Dubya:

The ‘rats will put campaign contributions ahead of national security.

Only a Liberal Democrat could turn a Terrorist into a Victim

April 24 (Bloomberg) — Brazil’s discoveries of what may be two of the world’s three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere’s reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said.

Saudi Arabia’s influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan’s firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron’s article as “the shadow CIA.”

Brazil may be pumping “several million” barrels of crude daily by 2020, vaulting the nation into the ranks of the world’s seven biggest producers, Zeihan said in a telephone interview.

I’ve mentioned the Brazilian oil feilds previously, of course. Remember I mentioned also, the Bakken fields?  Combine the two in your answer: Do you think this oil bubble is going to burst shortly? we’ve been saying that, too.

Neal Boortz, this morning:

The name Bill Ayers has become tied to the Barack Obama campaign.  But now it seems that Obama has yet another terrorist buddy .. that would be Obama fundraiser Hatem El-Hady.  This man was the chairman of an Ohio-based Islamic “charity” called Kindhearts.  This “charity” was closed by the US government in 2006 for terrorist fundraising.  Now El-Hady has redirected his fundraising efforts to none other than the Barack Obama campaign.

 

Our friend El-Hady even has his own dedicated page on Barack Obama’s official website.  On this webpage you will see this terrorist’s bag man’s chronicling his fundraising on behalf of Barack Obama.  And, of course, there’s more.  El-Hady and Michelle Obama are listed as “friends” on the site.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Kindhearts, it is an off-shoot of the Holy Land Foundation, which has been on trial for attempting to mask support of terrorism as “charitable giving.”  Kindhearts not only provided funds for Hamas, but its fundraising specialist – a man by the name of Muhammad El-Mezain – was the designated Hamas bag man in the US.  And two months before the US government closed down Kindhearts, it was revealed that the South Asia Division Coordinator had known ties to al Qaeda, conducting a ten day tour of an al Qaeda recruitment center.

Now, this shold be a shock to nobody who has been watching this guy… and I mean watching, not staring in adulation. Take a real hard look at Barrack Obama, America. You won’t like what you see. The man simply belongs not in the White House, but the Big House.

And before you start cranking up in my feedback talking about how I’m guilty of damnation by association, listen closely. One or two such, we might consdier heppenstance. We’re now well past the number of asociations that were the subject anyone else, would be considered a pattern.

Michelle Malkin makes note of that North Carolina GOP ad that McCain supposedly doesn’t like.

[wp_youtube]JXxkctYRAZQ[/wp_youtube]

Says Michelle:

What is the big freaking’ deal?
…
McCain is demanding that the ad be withdrawn (via ABC News, hat tip- Allah):

“I have been committed to running a respectful campaign based upon an honest debate about the great issues confronting America today. I expect all state parties to do so as well. The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats,” said McCain in a letter to the North Carolina Republican Party Chair Linda Davis.

McCain demanded that Davis discontinue plans to run the ad: “It is imperative that you withdraw this offensive advertisement.”

The RNC sniffed that the ad was “Not appropriate and unhelpful.”

Hey, neither’s watching GOP standard-bearers making nice with Nancy Pelosi on a couch or making utter fools of their out-of-touch selves.

Exactly. Look, let me say right off that the very same point I made about supposed ‘torture’ applies here, as well, and oddly enough this point is both times aimed at John McCain

We are either willing to do what’s needed to defend ourselves, with no holds barred, or we do not deserve to survive. Which is as well, because under those conditions, we won’t.

To be perfectly blunt, one time and in one condition I’m willing to accept. Twice, I think to expose a flaw in McCain’s thinking. He’s worried about respect? Senator McCain, respect is earned. Obama hasn’t… and I’ve long since started to wonder about you. This particular didn’t help.

Some McCain supporters are spinning the disavowal of the ad as a masterful strategy to stay above the fray.

Nonsense. It’s an idiotic strategy to convince more rank-and-file Republicans to stop giving money to the Beltway GOP elite.

I wouldn’t dismiss that disconnect so lightly, Michelle. It’s possible that’s what’s going on here, but I doubt it. I suspect and barring other evidence, will suppose the ad to be arranged for by people like myself who are tired of McCain licking the Democrat’s boots. Possibly, people within McCain’s own org… and to say the least I’m less than comfortable that this kind of a split is already indicated. Let me make myself perfectly clear so there’s no doubt of my position on this. Grow a spine, Senator. You’re not going to win by making nice with these people.

Addendum: (David L)

As Dan Rather might say:  When you bring a pig to a dance, you dance with the pig.   Well BO brought Wright to the dance, and now his has to dance with Wright. 

Apparently the Republcan National Committee also needs to grow a spine.  The RNC has objected to the North Carolina Republican Party ad.   Katy of Katy’s Conservative Corner, has message for the RNC, “Stay Out of Our Business!”   You go girl!

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Mr. Obama’s call for postpartisanship looks unconvincing, when he is unable to point to a single important instance in his Senate career when he demonstrated bipartisanship.

Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal.

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