The Ever Shrinking Yellow Box

There was a time not so long ago,when everybody in the Rochester area know when the Kodak bonuses came out.   The merchants heavily advertised the event.  In other words, you could not help but notice.    Now the  Kodak bonus on par with ESLO, a  fishing derby   MSNBC:

Eastman Kodak, the industrial giant that drove Rochester’s economy for generations, is now the city’s third largest employer behind the University of Rochester and Wegmans.

As of 2007, Kodak has 9,200 full-time employees in Rochester

[…]

In 1982 Eastman Kodak employed 60,400 full-time employees in the Rochester area

Kodak no longer driver Rochester’s economic engine.

• McQ puts up a few telling comments about Identity politics, in the context of the ever increasingly irrelevant “National Origination for (Leftist) Women. Not much of a shock that we both draw the same conclusion about NOW in particular… but I would spread that deal all over the Identity politics thing. It strikes me as train-wreck fascinating that the Democrats who are supposedly rebelling against racism, sexism and politics as usual, should be engaging in exactly that, with a couple of Chicago Pols leading the way over that cliff. This bit with NOS is only the most current example.
• OK, so now we’re hearing that John Edwards has quit the race, as I predicted here several days ago. Talkmeister Boortz seems to feel this race is now down to two: Hillary Clinton and John McCain. While I’ll admit I’ve been thinking along the same lines for a few days, now, I’m not quite ready to concede that point, yet. First of all, Edwards supporters will end up in Obama’s camp, and so will add to his weight at the convention. Barring the Michigan and Florida delegates, that means a very close race indeed. And yet, I think we’re going to see an effort… an all-out effort, mind you… to get those delegates counted at the convention, which would of course push Hillary Clinton into the nomination. Meanwhile, the Romney camp came close enough to be credible in the other states going forward…. But in any event, if Boortz is correct, our worst fears are realized. Either way, I’m not encouraged by this election and the way it’s shaping up. Do you know, we’re talking about a choice between someone willing to harbor illegal aliens, and someone who has been harboring a rapist and both of whom are trying to out liberal each other in the use of other people’s money?
  
• And by the way, McCain will get Rudy’s endorsement today some time, I think. (Confirmed) What ya wanna bet we see Rudy offered VP?
• I am of the firm belief that the President should be ordering, as a national security priority, domestic oil exploration and drilling it where it’s found. EPA laws on the subject should be over-ruled by this national security priority. Yes, that means ANWR, that means offshore in Florida and California, that means anywhere we can find it. Florida, particularly is being drilled by the Cubans, for pity’s sake. It’s time we started getting in on that act. It’s ours, after all. We flood the market with it. We bankrupt the OPEC nations, in the process. Oh, and of course at the pump prices fall as a direct result. The oil’s out there, gang. It’s just that we’ve been so concerned about the enviro-nazis and the NIMBY crowd, that we’ve backed ourselves into a corner, thinking there’ no oil to be had out there. Not true. It’s time we started using what’s ours. Sadly, I don’t think either McCain, nor Clinton is smart enough.
• I see by way of OTB that McCain has a ‘secret plan to capture BinLaden’. Forgive me if I’m not impressed.
• Personally, I’m waiting for that spy satellite to land in my back yard. I figure the place needs landscaping, anyway.
• John Hawkins has an interview with David Frum up, about the latter’s new book.
• Glenn seems to think Bill and Hillary aren’t working well together. As I said yesterday, I’m not convinced he’s not working at her direction. It’s called ‘plausible deniability.
• As if Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich weren’t bad enough, now Nader wants in on the act.
• By the way, did you see that despite dropping out of the race, Kucinich still got 13% of the vote? One wonders how many of these votes were cast knowing that Kucinich wasn’t running anymore, and we cast as a lark or as a protest vote?
• I’m still cleaning up the mess here at Casa de Bit. The power out didn’t help the systems here, at all.

Addendum: (David L)

Glenn seems to think Bill and Hillary aren’t working well together. As I said yesterday, I’m not convinced he’s not working at her direction. It’s called ‘plausible deniability.

Non-concur.  I don’t think it is an act.  The Clintons have a marriage of political convience.  They don’t like each other.  Both are free agents.   Mrs. Clinton has never had any control over B.J..  Look at B.J. string of bimbos.  B.J. is all for B.J.  He wants Mrs. Clinton to get elected, so that he can get his third term.   I’d would not be all that surprized if the first act of Clinton 44 would be to have Clinton 42 put under arrest.    Mrs. Clinton has to have B.J. campaign on her behalf, because she too weak to win on her own.   However letting B.J. roam free is a perilous adventure.

Hugh Hewitt says it not over and will not be over even after Super Tuesday.   Now it is clear that Mike Huckabee is running to spoil Mitt Romney’s chances and to garner a shot at Veep.  While the Huckster is playing the spoiler, Hugh posts an interesting quote from Romney:

“I think what will happen across the country is that conservatives will give a good thought to whether or not they want to hand the party’s nomination over to Senator McCain. He has not been their champion over the last several years,”

So are you Hucksters conservativet?   Romney is not the idea Conservative, but unlike John McCain, Romney has not been waging war on conservative values, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman, Wisconsin Right to Life.  Gitmo, tax cuts, Gang of Fourteen.   A vote for Huckabee is a vote for the candidate endorsed by the New  York Times.

Five minutes after my last post, we lost power. Just now came back. A weird day. Snowing sideways, at the moment. I noted footage of the snow and blow act out in Des Moines yesterday. It’s here, today. Re-starting my servers here again.

So uttered to me this morning.   The good news, is  that we don’t have Dorothy’s twister.   The bad news, it is far colder than a summer day in Kansas.   The morning fish wrapper said the peak wind speed should be fourteen miles per hour below hurricane strength.   That’s all for Rochester, NY this morning.

On to Florida, John McCain said of his win:

 “I’m the conservative leader who can unite the party.”

I may have been born, but I wasn’t born yesterday.    I don’t trust McCain, and he is giving me no reason to trust him.  How can McCain unite conservative, when is isn’t one of them and can not stand them?  McCain is still committed to open borders, higher taxes and less jobs.    McCain claims the mantle of Reagan conservatism, but violates Ron’s Eleventh Commandment.

Mitt Romey is not my ideal candidate, but I do not accept McCain’s visceral hatred of Romney.   Oh, I understand it, but don’t accept it  McCain makes nice with die hard core liberals like Ted Kennedy, Russ Fiengold and Joe Lieberman, but hates Mitt Romney.   Romney’s crime is that  McCain sees Romney standing between McCain and the nomination.    I have tough time believing that McCain is a conservative at heart.

If this were a two man horse race,  I’d bet on Romney.  He a slightly better candidate.  However in three man field, Mike Huckabee looks to prevent Romney from picking up any southern states.   Romney can beat McCain is lots of states.  He can beat both McCain and Huckabee in but a few.  The best I can see is a brokered convention.

As to the general, if the race comes down to the current leaders, McCain and Mrs. Clinton it will be ugly, very ugly.   Both have thin skins, bad tempers,  lack experience but feel entitled to the office.   If McCain will savage a republican to win the nomination, just imagine what he will do to Mrs. Clinton to win the general.   We  already seen what the “First Black President’ will do .   This will be both McCain Mrs. Clinton’s last chance for the office.   Parties do not renominate losers.   Expect disparte tactics.  Expect ugly.

Hat Tip photo:  No Place Like Ox.

Addendum:

I’ll decline to board the McCain band wagon.   McCain still has yet to win in closed primary.   By design, fraud or whatever, the Florida primay was an open primary.  Michelle has the details.

Speaking of band wagons, the John Edwards band wagon as gone wheels up.  I wonder with what campaign Edward struck a deal and what the deal was?   Barack Obama’s attorney general?

And no, I’m not talking about Monica Lewinski, though I may get to that today.

No, I’m talking about the high wind conditions we were supposed to get yesterday… they didn’t develop until this morning, and when they did they took out my internet connectivity.  70mph winds, again, like a couple weeks ago.

Given that when the net goes out around here the power goes out too, I took the whole LAN offline… several computers, a router, a few switches a few servers, etc., as a precaution. All I need is a power surge to wipe me out. THe wind is dying down, some, and the boradband just came back online a half hour ago, and so I’m just now getting my network going. It’ll take me a little to get things in balance again.

As a candidate Mrs. Clinton has made a lot of promises   Can she be expected to keep any of them?   Remember that B.J. Clinton campaigned on the promise of a middle class tax cut but instead delivered a retroactive tax increase.  Clintons lie. If Mrs. Clinton will not keep her promises as a candidate, and she will not, there is no reason to believe that she keep them as president, Union-Leader, New Hampshire:

COURTING VOTERS in Iowa and New Hampshire, last August Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to “campaign or participate” in the Michigan or Florida Democratic primaries. She participated in both primaries and is campaigning in Florida. Which proves, again, that Hillary Clinton is a liar.

Mrs. Clinton thinks she is entitled to be president.   She also believes she is smart.   While she can’t acquire any more brain power, like the room temperature I.Q. that it would require to recognize her husband is a cad, she will do anything, and destroy anything, in her quest to be become president.  

Hat Tip:  Memeorandum.

Addendum:

Allah Pundit, Hot Air, has more details and numbers.

John Hawkins deals with a reader’s question about why the ‘sphere hasn’t been more effective in this campaign:

First of all, it is correct to say that the blogosphere’s two favorite candidates have been Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson, both of whom, obviously, are out of the race. Also, it’s worth noting that on the left side of the blogosphere, they backed John Edwards and only started gravitating towards Barack Obama when it became obvious that Edwards wasn’t going anywhere.

So, that begs the question: why wasn’t the blogosphere able to provide more help to its favorite sons? Well, to be blunt: we’re just not big enough.

Getting into more detail, as I’ve said before, when it comes to the blogosphere, “it’s the who, not the how many.” Bloggers generally make a difference by finding stories that have been missed, angles that haven’t been worked, or by breaking stories and getting bigger outlets to pay attention to them.

However, in a presidential race, the bigger outlets are already paying attention and trying to come up with new angles. Moreover, if there is a story broken, it’ll probably be because an opposition researcher with one of the campaigns finds something on an opponent and forwards it to a MSM outlet. In other words, in a presidential race, there are too many other large forces at play for bloggers to have a big impact.

There certainly is that. But remember what I said to Rick Moran some months ago: Blogs are in the strictest of senses, REACTIVE.  We are at our best in reacting to what’s already out there, particularly in terms of what is and is not news, or what is or is not a movement.  Promoting one candidate over the other is perhaps not our forte’, yet.

Of course, it’s kinda like the concept of original sin…the candidate in question has to WANT it. By way of Henke, I’m reminded of a passage from the hand of Eric Scheie at Classical Values, It’s one I thought at the time made the strongest case possible for Fred Thompson:

Those who most want to be president are those who least deserve to be elected. The best presidents are those who are forced or persuaded by others into accepting the job.

All the more reason he would have been a great president.

Just so. Such a reluctance strikes me as foundational, because I want someone in the office who doesn’t think government the end all and be all to every one of man’s problems, both individually and as a group.

I wondered at the time about a comparison between this, and what I will call the Prometheus Syndrome, whereas anyone who brings a little fire to the process, and is guilty of original sin; IE Wanting the post, is proverbially chained to rocks and fed to vultures, particularly if they obtain it. The problem of course is that there has to be a perception of ‘wanting it’ long in advance of the primary season for a candidate to catch on…. and usually, by the time the general election rolls around, the reason they were running in the first place, has gotten lost.

Now, with those roles thus defined, I’ll point out that we in blogdom, like the mainstream media, react best to what’s already on the table, what’s already established. The perception of desire simply wasn’t there, guys, sorry to say.  THere were a lot of good reasons for wanting Thompson in there, but Thompson apparently didn’t want it. Note the use of the word apparently, which I add since the desire may actually have been there.  So two things, really need to happen, the fire needs be there, and the voters need to see it.  (Now, of course once they get into office, perception becomes a different matter, particularly in terms of how various media are able to describe and alter perception.

On those occasions where Blogdom has been on the leading edge, seemingly, of a movement, it became a movement because of people reacting to the call. Occasionally, gang, there’s going to be a media push, where we manage to get an issue to the front burner.  We can certainly amplify what noise already exists and we can certainly fan the flames… but we lack the ability to make the spark.  That being a flaw, or a design feature is arguable.

Bottom line: we bloggers are more likely to make a difference in changing public perceptions where there’s a little heat.

Campaign Spot:

The first wave of exit poll numbers, including absentees: McCain 34.3 percent, Romney 32.6 percent, Giuliani 15.3 percent, Huckabee 12 percent.

Which pretty much writes the end of Rudy’s story, as we discussed here several times in the last few days.

• Another Honorable Mention in the OTB Caption Contest.
• The State of the Union was about as expected… as we discussed today….with Bush stating the truth, by and large and the Democrats with their fingers in their ears.
• I find it amusing that Canada, of all places, has backed out of the Durban Anti_Racism conference run by the UN. One official refers to it as a “Gong Show” and most are suggesting that it actually promotes racism, instead of lessening it. Now, if we could get Canada’s supposed Human Rights Commission under the same microscope, we might actually have a grain of hope for Canada.
• Of COURSE Rudy will quit when… not if, but when…. he doesn’t win Florida. I mean, I already called that one, days ago. No great shakes, that call… all one needed to foresee such events, after all, was a pulse. Granted, I kinda figured he’d stick around until Super Tuesday… so I erred insofar as his exit will come faster than I predicted, but still…
• The liberals are turning on Hillary, as we’ve been documenting here for some days, now.  When it finally costs her the nomination, I want to see the cameras on her, recording her me from the left to the idea tahtltdown. At the very least, it will force a reaction to the idea that we’ve been correct on the right all along about her and her erstwhile Husband. And for that reason, I suppose it likely that we’ll never see such coverage.
• 50 or 60mph winds in the offing, today, for around Casa de Bit. This has been one of those half-way winters, around here. The snow never stays for long,  nor does the warmer weather.  We get this type of winter, now and then, but it’s always a little strange for the locals to deal with. And the winds we get on the head end of each front manages to make things miserable, given it takes power out to large areas, each time.

At first thought the [Un]Ameican Civil Liberties Union seems to think the people of Cleveland are stupid:

The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to block the March 4 presidential primary in Ohio’s most-populous county if it switches to a paper ballot system that does not allow voters to correct errors. In a follow-up to a suit it filed Jan. 17, the A.C.L.U. of Ohio asked for a preliminary injunction against any election in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, if the switch is made. The lawsuit argued that the proposed paper-ballot system would violate voters’ constitutional rights because it does not allow them to correct errors before the ballots are cast.

On second thought, the [U]ACLU may be right.

Why is it David Brooks considers Regan’s legacy needlessly narrow, and a myth, while Kennedy has a ‘mystique’?

Yesterday, I wrote about the New York State chapter of the NAG’s being pissed at Senator Oldsmobile.   I suppose giving a misogynic drunk a free pass on Chappaquiddick didn’t give the NAG’s the loyalty they thought their due.  The NAG’s thought they owned Senator Oldsmobile.

The NAG- NY tirade does not seem to be playing too well among feminists,   Here a typical one:

NOW’s Hissy Fit
Oh my dear Emily, I just read that NOW letter about how Ted Kennedy has supposedly betrayed all women everywhere by endorsing Barack Obama-and I have not seen that many exclamation marks since I read Donna Hanover’s book about how great it is being the ex-Mrs. Rudy Guiliani.
 

Melinda Henneberger, Slate.

One of my peeves against the NAG’s is that while they claim to speak for all women, they don’t even speak for all gender feminists, much less all feminists.    Not only are the NAG-NY’s  in left field, they appear to all by themselves.   One hysterical cry too many?

On a parting note, I just love Gina Cobb’s take:

So now it’s sexist to support Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton? 

Or is it only sexist to support Barack Obama if one has been sexist in the past, like Ted Kennedy?  My head is hurting.

And what’s with this overwrought rhetoric?:  “And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment!”  It sounds like something out of The Young and the Restless.

I missed it, then who doesn’t miss Keith Olbermann?   The Worst Commentator on Cable, named Mary Katherine Ham as his “Worst Person in the World.”   For her part, Mary Katherine is honored.

According to a couple incoming e-mails, I was Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” tonight. I am, of course,  honored to be joining such good conservative company in the vast cast of hopelessly evil pink Republican elephants haunting Olby’s imagination. I am even more honored to have beaten out such tough competition in Glenn Beck and Karl Rove for the top spot. Imagine that. More “worst” than the Architect himself???

I predict that Olbermann will learn how Mike Huckabee felt when he was foolish enough to take on Rush Limbaugh.
?

A thought occurred to me as I was driving home froma  family event last evening… Is Bill Clinton really to blame for Hillary’s troubles in getting through the nomination process? Or are the Clintonistas offering him up as a target so as to deflect the main thrust of the anger away from Hillary?

See, what bothers me here is that when Bill was President, Hillary was always the one, if we trust the hype, who was busy making policy and strategy decisions. After all, this is the ‘experience’ she’s claiming.   So, logically, the question comes up; Is Bubba really a loose cannon, or is he acting under direction from Hillary?

Press release, in full, from the NAG-NY: 

ALBANY, NY (01/28/2008; 1101)(readMedia)– Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.

And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us. He’s joined the list of progressive white men who can’t or won’t handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not “this” one). “They” are Howard Dean and Jim Dean (Yup! That’s Howard’s brother) who run DFA (that’s the group and list from the Dean campaign that we women helped start and grow). They are Alternet, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, Kucinich lovers and all the other groups that take women’s money, say they’ll do feminist and women’s rights issues one of these days, and conveniently forget to mention women and children when they talk about poverty or human needs or America’s future or whatever.

This latest move by Kennedy, is so telling about the status of and respect for women’s rights, women’s voices, women’s equality, women’s authority and our ability – indeed, our obligation – to promote and earn and deserve and elect, unabashedly, a President that is the first woman after centuries of men who “know what’s best for us.”

The Clintons simply do not respect women.   They abuse women, and the NAG-NY’s support the abusers.  Gennifer Flowers,   Sally Perdue, and Monica Lewinsky were not  available for comment.   With friends like the Clintons, women do not need enemies.

Hat tip:  Allah Pundit, Hot Air