Nightly Ramble: Rumors Taxes And Speculation

• Sir Francis!! DUCK!!! Yeah, I got first place in the OTB Caption contest.
• The news has been bouncing around on the sphere all day regards the marines who were at Haditha being cleared of all charges.  The one thing I’ve not noticed, nor will you for at least a while if ever, is commentary from John Murtha.  Pretty much in line with the disproven reports about the 300 dead women and children, supposedly killed by an American Airstrike. All of it, horse squeeze. At some point, our press, and our own government, are both going to learn that it’s usually best to give our troops the benefit of the doubt.  Probably, following the 08 election.
• Wait a tIck; Sexual assault charges at the Playboy Mansion? Does anyone NOT understand long before they enter the place, what it’s about? Talk about your frivolous lawsuits.
• From the Rumor Mills, we are hearing that Yasser Arafat had AIDS. I suspect that this is a planted rumor , designed to raise the fortunes of Hamas, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it wasn’t.
• James, I tend to side with Bruce, on this one. I think you’re admiration to be misplaced at least.  Certainly, the activities in which Greenwald engages are effective but I doubt this is of any credit to him.  His being silent about the results, was not a case of him having class, but more about him having no class.  The fact remains that he was pitching up a blue streak because he figured the General had something to hide. once he finds out that he can no longer pursue that angle profitably for his politics he cliams up.  A not atypical ploy.
• Yes Jason, you called this one about France, correctly.  Still, I suspect we are years always from seeing any concrete difference in output, because Sarkozy has years of repair work to do, always assuming, of course, he’s successful in maintaining power for a few years.
• Boortz makes an interesting report on the guy that caught the baseball that “Needles” Bonds hit the other night for his record. seems the guy who knows the IRS, around $200,000.00.  Since the baseball is worth around a half a million, the IRS is taking the baseball is payment.  There is something of ironic justice, in this.  True, the poor baseball fan gets shafted out of the baseball.  Then again, it’s only a record on false pretext.  And now the baseball is not his property anymore, also on false pretext.
• Speaking of Boortz and Taxes, He is reporting that the head of Ford motor company says that the U.S. government should consider a European style gasoline tax.  The reason, of course, is to combat global warming.  Neal says this global warming myth has gotten out of hand.  Well, hell, Neal, it got out of hand quite a while ago.  He’s just trying to sign onto it, because he figures he’s going to have a Democratic -run Congress to deal with for a while.
• The latest speculation on the bridge collapse in Minnesota, is of a design flaw.  on other bit of speculation is that the bridge wasn’t being inspected correctly because of all of the page and cramp underneath it.  I’m not sure I’d buy that one though I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if a design flaw, Even if the place we heard about it was the Strib .  have the article in the Strib suggests that they watched the weight of construction work on the bridges of similar design. I said the night that thing went down that it struck me as strange that all the construction equipment was out on the bridge, along with piles and piles of rock and sand. Certainly more than the trucks the bridge was designed for, would carry.   If it is a design flaw, or if the construction activity were to blame, either would seem to negate any argument about maintenance or the lack thereof, and would by virtue of that also negate any argument about the necessity for raising taxes for preventing such incidents in the future.  As I said at the time.

Allah Pundit, Hot Air, has Ed Morrissey’s, Captain’s Quarters, expose of Move-On donor and lawyer Henry Reynolds, who set up a phoney web site to smear Fred Thompson.

Good job Ed.

Addendum: (Bit) McQ notes this story this morning:

Ye gods, did this guy really think he could get away with this?

Well, look… Perhaps, Bruce, they don’t care whether not they can “get away with it” .  Consider the many ploys that we have seen of late in support of leftist ideas.  The Beauchamp ploy comes to mind. Joe Wilson/Valarie Plame. Hadditha vs John Murtha. Etc, etc, etc.

In each case, the facts eventually overrode the accusations the left made.  But in each case, the myth lives on, despite having been debunked.  Given this, perhaps they’re not all that worried about being disprove in, anymore.  All that remains is to get the ideas and images out there… even if this proven, the image projected has already done damage.

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(FoxNews)– The photo of a Florida woman who has been missing for a year-and-a-half has turned up on Internet dating sites for lesbians and senior citizens.

A picture of Jennifer Kesse, who disappeared in Orlando when she was 24, has been posted with the profile of lindaneedslove on SeniorPeopleMeet.com and with that of chickcheckinaz on lesbianpersonalsonline.com.

“It’s disturbing,” her father, Drew Kesse, said in a phone interview. “Whoever cut and pasted it obviously had to go on her site to get it. They had to know she was missing. How someone can do that — it’s horrible.” The Web site dedicated to Jennifer’s case is www.jenniferkesse.com.

(Shrug)

Likely, what we have here, he is somebody seeking to access those websites, and the people on them, for their own purposes, while maintaining their anonymity.  It’s not all that unusual a ploy, really, to ‘borrow’ someone’s identity for such a purpose.

MediaBistro says:

The AFL-CIO Democratic forum last night on MSNBC, was the lowest rated-yet of the eight primary debates/forums held this election season. Based on live +same day data, Nielsen found the debate had 960,000 total viewers and 340,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo.

This spreadsheet shows the debates by date, and the number of viewers that watched…

Would that be considered “voting with your tuner”?

Democrats? They really are a party with no new ideas except: tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax …

Don Surber.

Fits in well with James Oberstar and  Neil Abercrombie,

Kate, Small Dead Animals, blogs of the creaking as Al Gore’s settled science settles in yet again and his hockey stick morphs into a puck:

“As it stands, we are looking at a bladeless “Hockey Stick”, and for all intents and purposes at the falsification of the anthropogenic warming hypothesis for North America. Of particular note is that the Climate Audit piece indicates that GISS has erased the old [unadjusted] data, giving it the makings of an excercise in covering one’s tracks. The legality of this must be questionable given that we are dealing a federally funded agency. Astounding.”  

Settled science, my donkey.

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A Blue Dog is a conservative democrat.   The Kossack wing of the democrat party faces a problem.  It appears that the Kossacks can’t live with the Blue Dogs.  However without the Blue Dogs the democrats would not have have a majority in Congeress.

Will the democrats destroy their majority from within?  The New York Times seems to susggest as much:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 — Progressive and liberal groups and left-leaning blogs are furious, tossing around fighting words like “spineless,” “craven” and “weak.”

So much for the hopes of Democratic leaders that they could avoid a withering political attack by clearing the way for Congress to approve an expansion of the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program before the August recess.

Dean Barnet identifies the Kossacks’ problem:

[T]he problem of building a political movement where everything is intensely personal.

The art of politics is collecting and using political power.   Sadly for the Kossacks, they appear blind to their personal idealogy.

Let it be known, there is no such thing as a “temporary” goverrment rax.

In 1898, Congress passed a levy of one cent per telephone call to help raise money for the Spanish-American War. By 1990, the tax had become three percent (3%) of your overall telephone bill

So when a politician talks about a temporary tax, he is lying:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A temporary tax on gasoline, diesel fuel or imported oil could provide billions of dollars for U.S. bridge upgrades, a leading congressional Democrat said on Wednesday.

Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, whose home state of Minnesota was the scene of the August 1 highway bridge collapse into the Mississippi River, said increased taxes on all three products could generate more than $40 billion over three years.

Before we raise one more road tax, we need to stop the government from diverting road tax dollars to pet pork projects.  For example, Minnesota would had plenty of transportation funds available, had the government not spent seven hundred million dollars on twelve mile long trolley line, Hiawatha.

Just as the secret to immigration reform is enforce border security first, the key to road infrastructure repair to quit diverting our road tax dollars away from our roads.  No more road tax dollars for trolley lines.

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• Hot around here today. Well, actually not too hot, only around 86°, but with the humidity, it FEELS like more. Joyner is reporting his neck of the woods got to 100, today. No, this isn’t a comment about global warming,(I’ll get to that at the end) I’m simply stating the fact that it is mid August.
• I see where Philip Kolinski, the guy from Michigan, involved with that scrap metal scam,ended up serving his sentence, or, at least part of it. He was outside the side of the county governmental center, cleaning the veterans monument there, with a toothbrush.  And, of course, wearing a shirt you see in the picture, here.  Too bad we can’t use the same kind of punishment for others who smear the name of veterans.  John Kerry, for example.  Scott Thomas Beauchamp. Or Kos (You remember…”Screw them”) or any one of several million who have done so.  I will tell you folks, a backlash is coming over this nonsense, and it’s coming soon.  The scales of already begun to tilt away from the left and their abuse of those who serve.  For my part, it can’t come fast enough.
• I am advised by an e-mail, that today is the sixth anniversary of InstaPundit. Congratulations on the success, Glenn.  We had that anniversary, some weeks ago, here at BitsBlog. Of course, Glenn’s had somewhat greater success. (Chuckle)
• They finally got around to re-arresting the Liberian child rape suspect in Maryland.  Apparently, he was arrested after trying to elude Philadelphia police.  It appears he tried to move to Philadelphia.  How that’s all going to play out, I have no idea.  But if any kind of justice is to be served, the judge who originally turned him loose… one Katherine Savage, should lose her standing, and robes.
• I see where GreenStone media has basically given up the ghost.  This is the one that was started by Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem. Another Liberal radio network bites the dust, after suffering with nothing but small markets, and rim shotters.  They are, of course, still hoping for additional funding.  George Soros, call your office.
• The AP has a story up, that caught my eye… and dragged it a few feet. A glaciologist in New Delhi is apparently blaming global warming for he melting of the stalagmite of the Amanath cave. Apparently this is a Hindu holy site. The giant icicle is apparently a symbol for Lord Shiva who is usually symbolized by a phallus. With all the melting going on, it’s been smaller and, well a bit softer of late.  Oh, hell. The solution to this one’s easy. Lord Shiva: Meet Bob.
  

Goldfarb, over at the Weekly Standard:

It appears that today is a watershed day with regard to US policy in Iraq. Democratic leaders now acknowledge that the surge is working. The only catch is, they say it’s no surprise, they’ve known it for a while, and it’s nothing significant.

Yeah. Well, what did I say last night, to Billy?

Saw your note this morning…. As I stated in my comments we have seen this before. It’s a typical ploy of Erb and his ilk, once cornered on a factual point to claim “it doesn’t matter. ” Aesop and his fable of the sour grapes seems to roar to mind here.

McQ seems to be getting into a lot of the specifics.

I want to mention, here, that I got a nice note back from Rick Moran, regarding the open note I posted last night. I genuinely appreciated his taking the time, and his warm comments for BitsBlog. Apparently, he’s been catching some heat for his comments on the Beauchamp thing.
In the largest part, he seems to feel that the whole situation with Beauchamp has been overblown.

I responded to him that perhaps it is slightly overblown, but that over blowing it is the only way to get the mainstream media’s attention anymore.  It’s the only which they understand, having engaged in themselves for many years.

I also raised to him the issue of patterns, And it’s a point I should have mentioned in the original note, because I think it bears directly on the volume of screaming that the right-o-sphere has been doing on this topic.

Finally, allow me please to point out that while the back and forth is focusing on what you characterize as a “gaffe”, the real story here, and the reason behind the anger in everybody’s comments, is this is part of a pattern that we have been dealing with for some time now.  If this Beauchamp thing were singular in history, most of the people screaming loudly today, wouldn’t even bother taking notice.  Thing is, this is hardly the first time the press has lied to us, in general, and is certainly not the first time TNR, particularly has lied to us.  The backlash was bound to occur, the pressure has been building for some time.  This is as good an excuse as any, I think for it to finally occur.

I will leave the implications of the origin of that backlash to the reader.

Finally, as to Rick, I will repeat what I said to Billy this morning… that his writings usually have much to commend them.  He’s on my “regular read” list, and should be on yours as well.

Addendum: (David L)   Nice segway fellows  If Rick Moran provides feedback, Michelle Malkin provides collaboration:

The tale of Army Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp, the discredited “Baghdad Diarist” for the discredited New Republic magazine, is an old tale:

Self-aggrandizing soldier recounts war atrocities. Media outlets disseminate soldier’s tales uncritically. Military folks smell a rat and poke holes in tales too good (or rather, bad) to be true. Soldier’s ideological sponsors blame the messengers for exposing anti-war fraud.

Personally, I had been thinking of tying this in to Dan Rather’s fake but accurate meme, but Michelle takes is back to Jingis Khan.

And, perhaps more specifically, what kind of the fact is that image having on our position, worldwide?

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, today. It’s from Ion Mihai Pacepa, who says Precisely what I’ve been saying for years, now”

Take it from this old KGB hand: The left is abetting America’s enemies with its intemperate attacks on President Bush.

To that point:

I spent decades scrutinizing the U.S. from Europe, and I learned that international respect for America is directly proportional to America’s own respect for its president.

My father spent most of his life working for General Motors in Romania and had a picture of President Truman in our house in Bucharest. While “America” was a vague place somewhere thousands of miles away, he was her tangible symbol. For us, it was he who had helped save civilization from the Nazi barbarians, and it was he who helped restore our freedom after the war–if only for a brief while. We learned that America loved Truman, and we loved America. It was as simple as that.

Later, when I headed Romania’s intelligence station in West Germany, everyone there admired America too. People would often tell me that the “Amis” meant the difference between night and day in their lives. By “night” they meant East Germany, where their former compatriots were scraping along under economic privation and Stasi brutality. That was then.

But in September 2002, a German cabinet minister, Herta Dauebler-Gmelin, had the nerve to compare Mr. Bush to Hitler. In one post-Iraq-war poll 40% of Canada’s teenagers called the U.S. “evil,” and even before the fall of Saddam 57% of Greeks answered “neither” when asked which country was more democratic, the U.S. or Iraq.

It’s interesting to me, that the democrats in this country are screaming about our lost prestige in the world, when they are the ones directly responsible for it.   It’s amazing, how much they’re willing to sacrifice in the way of world prestige for our country, just so that they can get a “gotcha” point for the next election.

The ‘rats continue to infest Mrs. Pelosi’s swamp.   Congressman  Neil Abercrombie (D-HI 1st) wants to spend eight million dollars of the taxpayer’s money because he is too cheap to buy a membership in a healthclub for himself.  Emily Belz and Alexander Bolton, Hill, report:

Abercrombie is touting his efforts to secure funding in the legislative branch spending bill to begin an estimated $8 million renovation of the House gym. The project is personally important to Abercrombie, who sets a yearly goal to bench-press 200 pounds more than his age, now 69.

Heathclub memberships can be had in Washington for a hundred dollars a month.   It is far better for the taxpayer, that is you and me, for Abercombe to pay a hundred dollars a month out his own pocket rather than to soak us for eight million dollars.

I’ve already made mention of this, but a post from McQ and the timing of it as regards other conversations, I think deserves a response:

Hit number 756

[Yawn]

Says the real home run king:

“I would like to offer my congratulations to Barry Bonds on becoming baseball’s career home run leader,” [Hank]Aaron said. “It is a great accomplishment which requires skill, longevity and determination.

Hank has too much class to add the last reason – steriods. And yeah, I know there’s nothing “official” about that, but I have eyes. It will eventually come out.

The timing of other conversations, involves the whole Beauchamp thing. I said to Billy earlier this morning:

The people who engaged in the “piling on”, as Rick describes it, are average Americans, just Joe and Jane Lunchbox, who are reacting, I think correctly, to being lied to. In my view, the larger the numbers of individuals screaming, (Note the wording) the more the perception gets out there, that “hey, perhaps this does matter”. Which in turn effectively counters the nutty professor and his ilk, and their claims that ‘it doesn’t matter”.

The reaction to this bit with Barry Bonds, is largely the same.  The American people have (correctly) identified this as a lie, and are reacting accordingly.

Another parallel; notice where I said in my note to Billy:

As an aside, I would further suggest that their not being pundits, and their not being news people, is in addition to their credibility, not a subtraction from it, but then again, that’s just me.

A similar situation is occurring here.  The sports Pundits are forced by a number of pressures, to be heaping praises on Barry Bonds. Those same pressures force them to ignore the fact that the whole thing is a chemically induced lie.  Whereas, the American people for the most part have correctly identified it as a large mound of cattle feces and are so reacting.

Yep… so says Gallup.

We’re seeing some slight hints of positive news for the Bush administration.  For one thing, Bush’s job approval rating has stopped its downward trajectory.  Bush hit bottom with his administration low point of 29% in early July (based on our USA Today/Gallup poll readings).  Now – in the data just about to be released from our weekend poll – Bush’s approval rating has recovered slightly to 34%.  That’s not a big jump, but it is the second consecutive poll in which the president’s numbers have been higher rather than lower.

It gets better:

Also, we are seeing a slight uptick in the percentage of Americans who say the “surge” in Iraq is working.  That may not be a total surprise given the general tone of news out of Iraq recently, including the positive light on the situation put forth by Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack in their widely-discussed New York Times op-ed piece “A War We Just Might Win” on July 30. But it represents a change.

Indeed, the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll itself found a slight increase in the percent of Americans saying that the U.S. did the right thing in taking military action in Iraq, and were so uncertain about it that they redid the survey. And found the same results. (See this discussion by the Times’ Janet Elder).

…..
Here, dear reader, is another reason why perceptions, and falsehoods, like the ones under discussion in the Beauchamp affair, are of such great import.  The slightest positive move, from the leftist mouthpiece of the nation, the New York Times, and look at the turn the approval numbers take.  That’s why there was such a great emphasis on discrediting all O’Hanlon and Pollack when that article first appeared. the left knows full well that this is a battle of perception, as I stated in my comments to Billy, as regards Beauchamp.

And as to perceptions, let’s also remember that Congress, by comparison to Mr. Bush’s middle thirties numbers has an approval rating of 3%.