Sullivan: Nearly As Predictable As the NYT… And Not As Smart.

Andrew the Incontinent is back on his mountain, and expounds thus:

It was extremely pleasant not to have to respond in real time to the McCain story. Reading the blogosphere as a simple observer, it was, however, a little depressing to see the knee jerk partisanship. Several liberal bloggers exercised some skepticism toward the story and some conservative ones had a little Schadenfreude, but in general, it felt like a lot of people on the right were just relieved to be able to do the old Hannity-hate routine at the NYT. After this demoralizing campaign for Republicans, you can’t blame them, I suppose. But it’s still a little sad to see how much of conservatism is now a series of hate objects.

Oh, please, St. Andrew… Spare us.

Look… anyone who has read here for more than a couple days will understand that my personal thoughts on McCain are hardly what one would call complimentary. I’m someone who wanted him under his own bus months ago. I’m still not convinced it wouldn’t be best for all concerned, were that to occur. I will state flatly that I’m not alone in this as I look across the ‘sphere. So, don’t make the mistake of taking this post as a defense of McCain…

…but do you honestly mean to imply that the Times didn’t do more than their part in confirming what the right has been saying about them for decades, now?  I ask because you didn’t say anything about that… rather pinning your inexplicable, and incomprehensible sight- of- hand defense of the Times on the misbegotten idea that the only reason there was an outcry against the Times was that they’re now an object of ‘hate’ on the right? Matter of fact, the Times matched my prediction almost exactly with this stunt.

I mean, News flash; The New York Times tends not to like Republicans… indeed, tends to like nobody to the right of Fidel Casto. All this story f theirs did was confirm that the image afforded them by the right was very well deserved, indeed. And isn’t it interesting, how the Times, who clearly has been sitting on this information for years…(there’s not thing one new about it)… chose to run the story only AFTER he’d sewn up the Republican nomination?

Your attempt to cut this one down what you see as the ‘middle’ isn’t working, Andrew.

A very profound understatement, via Noel Sheppard, News Busters:

“It is clear that a termination can have a profound effect on a woman’s life.”

Telegraph(UK)

An artist killed herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: “I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum.”

Emma Beck was found hanging at her home in Helston, Cornwall, on Feb 1 2007. She was declared dead early the following day – her 31st birthday.

Her suicide note read: “I told everyone I didn’t want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does.”

Emma Clark needed support, better a husband.   She got neither,  Instead she got an abortion.     Shame on the boy friend who fathered two babiies, he was not willing to support.

Addendum:  More Michelle Malkin,

WASHINGTON -AP- Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will “shift the power from the few to the many.”

The idea of him having a chance of even beating Ron Paul, much less anyone else, is laughable.

But you know, I’m wondering how many who objected to McCain based on his age, support a 73 year old, socialist/populist  Ralph Nader.

Fran at Eternity Road makes an interesting point:

Let us have a look at an AP story from yesterday, Lawmakers Crack Down on Abusive Teachers.  As always, I encourage you to read the whole article for yourself and draw your own conclusions, but it’s fun to select a few passages and add a bit of selective emphasis (AND SNARKY COMMENTARY):

Heeding a steady drumbeat of sexual misconduct cases involving teachers, at least 15 states are now considering stronger oversight and tougher punishment for educators who take advantage of their students. (IF ONLY TEACHERS WERE ALLOWED TO MARRY, THEY WOULDN’T SCREW THE STUDENTS!)

[T]here also is a persistent problem with sexual misconduct in U.S. schools. When abuse happens, administrators too often fail to let others know about it, and too many legal loopholes let offenders stay in the classroom. (CARDINALS COVERED UP!  THE CHURCH ALLOWED ACCUSED PRIESTS A LEGAL PROCESS!)

A nationwide Associated Press investigation published in October found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. Experts who track sexual abuse say those cases are representative of a much deeper problem because of underreporting. (THE CHURCH DIDN’T REPORT EVERY CASE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT!)

As Fran suggests,

Let’s be clear–sexual abuse by priests was and is completely wrong, and cover-ups and transfers by Church leaders to hide the problem was wrong.  However, everything that the Church was accused of seems to also be the pattern when it comes to teacher sex abuse.

His point of course is clear; there’s a double standard between what the Church gets nailed with, and what government schools get nailed with, given similar misdeeds.

And, why?

Well, the Church, you see, is labeled against the common good, and the Government schools ARE the common good. Or, so they’d like us to think, at least.  Why would they want that?

There are many reasons, this is a complex issue.  However, I have come to believe that at the core of it all is Marx’ labeling of religion as the opiate of the masses.  The desperate cry of the Socialist, trying to gain followers by arguing they should turn their backs on their current Religion, and exchange it for the one the socialist preaches, is at the core of all this.  So it is that our mainstream media can never be seen as projecting the government school system as an evil, particularly when compared to religious institutions.

There is a cultural aspect of this as well, which should not be ignored.  Whatever else may be said about them, religions have a tendency to reinforce cultural values.  The socialist, however, desires to reshape existing cultures into the one that he or she envisions.  The only way, therefore, to reshape the culture is to remove the foundation.  Whatever else might be said about it, religion is certainly a piece of the cultural foundation.

Sometime ago I read a quote from an educator who later went on to political life, whose name I can’t recall at the moment.  If any of you can remember the quote I would appreciate passing it along in the comments.  But paraphrasing, he said the intent of education was to get students to come out different than their parents.  While there may be positive aspects involved with this, I have come to regard this as particularly ominous, given that at least part of the task the quote assigns educators, is to alter the culture, by teaching the students values which heir parents do not share.  You can certainly understand, therefore, why so many consider Catholic and other religious-based schools to run afoul of their vision of what Education is for; As I’ve said these tend to teach the cultural values which have been handed down generation by generation. Certainly an opposition to the quote I mentioned.
And so it is that our supposedly mainstream media, which in fact, amounts to naught but a mouthpiece for leftism, instead of reporting such abuses as Fran describes, runs for cover when sexual abuse occurs in government schools …(except, of course, in those instances where the sexual abuser is a rather nice looking blonde)… and yet goes into wall to wall mode when The Church is involved.

There are those in the press who will suggest, of course, that the priesthood is held to a higher standard because of its religious affiliation.  Yet, on what basis do they make that judgment? We are told that Catholics have an innate bias, which compels them to defend the priesthood.  When such matters arise, and therefore Catholics are not objective in the matter.  Yet, are not educators in the government school systems equally biased in the opposite direction?  Seems to me, that works both ways.  Of course, they don’t see it so. They have a goal in mind.

I should think the most conflicted person on the planet is a devout Catholic parishioner, employed by the government school system.

We grow yet again.

BitsBlog is now taking NOAA’s National Hurricane Center feeds. These will provide up to the minute severe weather information 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, for both oceans. During the storm season, this will be a very serous resource.

These feeds have been installed underneath the regular NOAA feeds. Just go to the BitsBlog newsroom (Link at the top of any page) and follow the links.

Now, perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve noted a trend that we should discuss as a nation… Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama seem to be fixated on the question “What can your country do for you?” They’ve apparently forgotten the person who they hold as a Democrat party icon, once intoned “ask NOT what your country can do for you”. It’s apparently easier to buy votes with taxpayer dollars.  It’s the one kind of political money John McCain doesn’t seem to complain much about.

But think on this, seriously, America.  What are the big proposals coming from these folks?

Government mandated job security.

Government provided prescription Drugs

Government provided healthcare

Government mandated job security.

Government provided heating

Governmentally imposed price limits on Gasoline and other energy products

Government provided college education

Government provided transportation

Government provided and guranteed retirement plans

Does anyone reading this not understand the level of governmental power over the individual required to impose such governmental control? Do you not understand that when you grant government this level of power, you lose your freedom?

By way of fellow Swamp Stomper, the Dread Pundit Bluto, And Breitbart, we see AFP offering up:

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain Friday said he hoped Fidel Castro’s resignation would be followed by his speedy demise, and rapped Democrat Barack Obama for offering talks with Cuba’s next leader.

“Fidel Castro announced that he would not remain as president — whatever that means,” McCain said in Indianapolis.

“And I hope that he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon.

“But the point is, the point is that apparently he’s trying to groom his brother Raul. My friends, Raul is worse in many respects than Fidel was.”

In a formal written statement, McCain also took a shot at Obama, the Democratic front-runner who renewed his offer to speak to leaders of US foes without preconditions in a campaign debate with rival Hillary Clinton in Texas.

“So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such a meeting confers, without having to release political prisoners, allow free media, political parties, and labor unions, or schedule internationally monitored free elections,” McCain said.

“Senator Obama says he would meet Cuba’s dictator without any such steps in the hope that talk will make things better for Cuba’s oppressed people.

“Meet, talk, and hope may be a sound approach in a state legislature, but it is dangerously naive in international diplomacy where the oppressed look to America for hope and adversaries wish us ill.”

Well, I have to admit, McCain got this one exactly right.

It’s as I said the other day…  our relationship with Cuba should not be a warm one until such time as Cuba’s government and it’s policies change, not merely it’s figurehead. This is not about one man, however infamous. This is about millions of people trapped by socialism.

And should it be a shock that Obama doesn’t understand this?

Noted with some amusement at Michelle’s place:

When last we heard from Toledo mayor Carty Finkbeiner, he was cussing up a storm over the nation’s backlash against his anti-Marine words and actions.

He’s as unpopular at home as he is with the rest of the country. The Toledo Blade reports on an internal prank:

A Toledo city hall prank at the expense of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner created a downtown whodunit yesterday.

For several hours during the day, the telephone voice mail greeting for the city’s purchasing hot line was, “Carty Finkbeiner is a complete moron.”

Clearly, someone’s got the guy pegged. The question is, have enough people in Toledo learned the lesson about electing single braincell entities like Finkbeiner.

And by the way, need I mention this slime is a Democrat? I ask, because the press tries to avoid such linkage at all costs.

Heh.

I no sooner make comment on how Bruce hasn’t been doing any of these of late at Q&O, and viola’, one shows up.

This time, the story related is of one Timothy Nein, A Staff Sgt with the 617th Military Police company. An amazing story, which I urge you to go and 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.

Technorati Tags: project hero

DETROIT, Feb 22 (Reuters) – General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a “total crock of shit,” saying his views had no bearing on GM’s commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.

The man’s just telling the truth.  I support him.

If John Hawkins’ latest polling on the matter is anything like accurate, McCain still has a lot of work to do to gain the trust of the base.

For the benefit of those who are new to this blog, I’ll say up front I don’t like John McCain. DOnot mistake this string of comments, therefore as a defense of him. But it will be useful for us to understand, I think, the genesis of the smear attempt mounted by TNR and the NYT.

I consider the timing of the story very suspect. And given the rush job they did on printing the story, it seems clear to me that those printing it considered the timing critical. As I said elsewhere, in the last few days, someone needed McCain on the defensive, right away… needed some way of putting him off his stride at the beginning of the campaign for the General election. This fits almost exactly with the prediction I made when he started leading the republican race. They’d start attacking him when he had things sewn up. And so they have.

But who are they, and who would benefit?

There are several ways we can take the evidence, here, as to who might benefit from such a story hitting just now; Huckabee is out of that list, since he’s not a serious candidate any longer, and would thus have nothing to gain.

McCain running a preemptive strike (So as to get the story out of the way at a less damning time) is something I might buy if I could be convinced that he had enough pull at TNR and the NYT to promote such a story in those venues. I am not so convinced, just now. So, sorry, that one just doesn’t ring true.

And in any event McCain would need to be a complete idiot to pull such a stunt, since in my view there’s no good time for such information to be coming out. I will point out that most of the stories which have been hurting candidates in both parties, this cycle, are all years old. Indeed, the only one this statement doesn’t apply to is Obama, given he has no legislative history to speak of.

Let’s look closely at the nature of the smear; It’s clearly aimed at breaking McCain’s link with the conservative base, and a time when that link is tenuous at best. It was a smear created by people who think that such matters are a central issue to the conservative base. Possibly, created by someone who has a history of being dragged into the public spotlight for sexual issues,a nd influence peddling issues themselves. The Clintons, for example. Or, perhaps their former supporters elsewhere in the Republican party.

Given the leaning left that the New York Times has always exhibited, it’s not much a stretch to consider that wing as the source of this.

I have commented to Bruce McQuain Q & O, both publicly and privately that I am a little disappointed that he has not been doing his project hero bit every weekend. His was a worthy project and one I was proud to tag along on.  I give him much credit for the effort expended. And given the level of effort required to keep that flow going I do understand why that would tend to peter out eventually. So, I’m not really bitching.
No less an effort, and most certainly no less worthy of credit,  has been put up by Chuck Simmins over at  America’s North Shore Journal.

Chuck, all I can say is I’ll be watching more closely.

Meantime, dear reader, Chuck has a series of posts on the matter, he wants you to see.

McQ makes an excellent point about the Democrat debate the other night, and a line that Obama offered up:

In last night’s debate, Barack Obama, apparently wanting to get in the swing of sounding like the Commander-in-Chief, threw this little beauty out there:

You know, I’ve heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon-supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.

And as a consequence, they didn’t have enough ammunition, they didn’t have enough Humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.
…
First some simple facts. Captains don’t command rifle platoons. Lieutenants do. Mostly 2nd LTs. And if they’re not available, the Platoon Sergeant is in charge.
…
Secondly, you don’t split platoons like that, except, perhaps within a company and only during operations when you want to reinforce another platoon or the like.

But sending part to Afghanistan and part to Iraq?

No way, no how is that happening.
…
But here’s the important point – he didn’t know any better. He had no understanding that it was all nonsense. That should terrify you.

What annoys me more than anything about this particular story is the idea that nobody in the audience or in the press has questioned him on the matter.

There’s no question in my mind that this is part and parcel of the “Easy time” Obama has been getting from the press of late. That he offers up regurgitated crap should be a surprise to nobody. He’s a Democrat. Far more dangerous, however, is that the news people whose job it is to question such matters, instead simply re-regurgitate it.

Obama is playing the game. I understand this.  He’s playing the game quite well.  But it is clear to me that he does not know what he’s talking about.  Then he has not investigated such stories as he’s being fed suggests to me that he really doesn’t care all that much about the status of our military.  Perhaps more importantly, he is simply regurgitating what he thinks those whose votes he wants want to hear.

In a world with an active Al Qaeda still in it, this strikes me as an extremely dangerous man to turn loose in the Oval Office.

The Bits Blog Newsroom continues to grow. Asof this morning, we now have the US State Dept newswires tied in to the newsroom.  This is a huge resource, adding to an already large collection of live feeds which update automatically. Look at the top of this page, under “Pages” and note the BitsBlog Newsroom button. That’s where to find all this fresh content. Let me show you what has been added, just today from the State Dept:

• USINFO Top Stories

• Democracy Top Stories

• Economic Issues Top Stories

• Global Issues Top Stories

• Bird Flu Top Stories

• Human Rights Top Stories

• International Security Top Stories

• Africa Top Stories

• East Asia Pacific Top Stories

• Europe and Eurasia Top Stories

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If you’re researching current events, this is a great resource.