View: Elisabeth – 1, Rosie – 0

She is cute,  has plenty of spunk and is conservative.  Sort of conservative version of Katie Couric.   Now Elisabeth has a notch on her belt.  Rosie has left the View.

Allahpundit, Hot Air, has the exit interview.

I note in passing, the dispite her girth, Rosie is a light weight.   She gets challenged, and leaves the arena with her tail between her legs.   

You go girl, Elisabeth.

Fred Thompson understands the American people.   Allahpundit, Hot Air, has the video.

After being lied to for thirty years by the likes of Teddy Kennedy, the public does not trust the federal government to fix immigration.   No more amnesty for empty promises.

Hate is an idea and ideas, as unexpressed speech, are protected constitutional rights.  The sage of Idaho, Clayton Cramer writes of the fascists who trample freedom of speech to promote their personal views of acceptable sexual behavior:

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I wish it were not so, but increasingly, it appears to be: Freedom of speech. Homosexuality widely accepted. Pick one.

In a nation that respects freedom of speech, this action by the state is simply unacceptable:

A 16-year-old Crystal Lake girl facing a felony hate crime charge alleging she and a friend distributed anti-homosexual fliers at her high school must remain locked up until her case goes to trial, a McHenry County judge ruled Tuesday

In a free country, a free man has the absolute right to hate anybody he alone may so desires, and has the absolute right to express his hate.  It is called freedom.

The tyranny of so-called hate crime laws is that they apply different standards of protection to different thoughts. The proper purpose of the state is to protect our rights to our thoughts, such as they are.    The proper purpose of the state is not to define what acceptable thoughts are.

The Discovery Channel, the History Channel and the Learning Channel all provide far better fare than PBS and without those annoying beg-a-thons.

Don Surber, on the state of public broadcasting.

Billy is rightfully incredulous over an article he points to in the WaPo, today:

“I lay on the table a modest proposal: Put the government into the oil business.”

Somebody named Steven Pearlstein loses his mind right out loud in The Washington Post.

Billy goes on to quote and comment later in his article:

“Standard’s first order of business would be to expand refining capacity in the face of the industry’s disciplined efforts to keep supply always a bit behind demand.”

Yeah, man. That’s what we need: the Post Office in charge of this sort of thing, and we won’t talk about “disciplined efforts” to make refinery construction the most bloody septic economic pain in the ass in post-WW II American industrial history. Pearlstein sees his fantastic industrial concern planting refineries here & there, “building facilities”, and “facilitat[ing]” delusionary productive activity in “Alaska and Canada”, although it must be said that if government could ever get out of its own way, then maybe this rotten little homunculus wouldn’t have to face one or two of the myriad hobbles that real producers have for generations.

Exactly so. My own take mirrors this, more or less;

The government has thusfar been the biggest roadblock to increased supplies which would be the fastest cure for the price situation. Are we really to expect that giving the monster total control of the situation, absent private investment,(private ownership being the only thing that’s kept it as manageable as it has been so far)  is going to make the situation better? What the hell is in the water down there in Washington, anyway?

Talk about stuck of stupid.   Instead of dealing with either the supply situation or refining capacity shortfall, the House passes a bill utterly incapable doing anything to help motorists at the pump.   Josef Hebert, Associated Press, reports:

WASHINGTON – Decrying near-record high gasoline prices, the House voted Tuesday to allow the government to sue OPEC over oil production quotas

And

“We don’t have to stand by and watch OPEC dictate the price of gas,” Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., the bill’s chief sponsor, declared, reflecting the frustration lawmakers have felt over their inability to address people’s worries about high summer fuel costs.

Instead of passing stupid bills, Conyers needs to read Bitsblog and learn how to take real action to lower the cost of gasoline, here, here, here and here.

Congress can take action to lower the price of motor fuel: increase domestic production, drill in ANWR an off offshore; eliminate the tariff on inported ethanol;  eliminate the legal barriers to new refinery constuction.

In short, there are plenty of action Congress could take to lower the cost of gasoline, if Congress had but the will to act.

More, James Taranto, Opinion Journal

(H/T photo: Democracy for New Mexico )

* It is more than passing strange to me, and should be to you, that one of the people who is running for president, and claims to be a conservative, has a legislative output, the high points of which match his name with the farthest left pols imaginable… .. McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy. I would think this would be of great concern.

* It occurrs to me that just on general principle, the new Johnny Depp movie should be rated “Ahrrrr”.

* John Stossel puts forward some interesting info about Ethanol. Why is anyone taking this ‘alternative’ seriously? In short:

If ethanol’s so good, why does it need government subsidies?

John also pointsup:

…it is good for something — or at least someone: corn farmers and processors of ethanol, such as Archer Daniels Midland, the big food processor known for its savvy at getting subsidies out of the taxpayers.

And it’s good for vote-hungry presidential hopefuls. Iowa is a key state in the presidential-nomination sweepstakes, and we all know what they grow in Iowa [http://www.iowacorn.org/]. Sen. Clinton voted against ethanol 17 times until she started running for president. Coincidence?

Bigger co-inkydink; Isn’t ADM, for one, a big contributor to political campaigns… particularly, Democratic party candidates?

* I see via a note from my wife, where Babs has the Italians all bent outta their noodles;

The Adusbef and Codacons groups urged the city of Rome and the Italian Olympic Committee to deny permission for Streisand to perform at the Stadio Flaminio on June 15. It is the 65-year-old singer’s first-ever concert in Italy and the start of her European tour.

The ticket prices, which range from just under $200 to more than $1,200, are “absurd and shameful,” the groups said in a statement Monday.

Ah, yes… connecting with the ‘little people’, again, are we?

* Are the Democrats aware that John Murtha has become a poster child for the culture of corruption? I doubt there’s much of the VOTING public who doesn’t know it.

* I see Stone(d) Phillips is looking for a job. More of the financial/viewership problems as I mentioned last night.

* So, you look like your forehead is made out of a bad Bondo patch? You say you scare the crap out of the neighborhood trick-or treaters every single year without the benefit of a mask? You’re convinced the tide wouldn’t go out with you? Your passport photo looks better than you do in real life? Hookers are telling you “not on the first date?” Well… Ugly guys, take heart.

(So, THAT was my problem. I was too good-looking. NOW, I find out.)

* AP is reporting:

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A man faces a felony theft charge in the disappearance of more than 1,300 women’s undergarments near the Colorado State University campus, police announced Tuesday.

Something tell me this is not exactly what was envisioned when his buddy told him he should pick up a hobby.

* I see where mental midget Brian Ross from ABC is pushing the story about the president authorizing new covert action against Iran. Well, it was covert. If there was ever any doubt that the press in this country has gone over to the other side, there should be no longer.

* So John “Breck Girl” Edwards is further revealing to the world that he is a lightweight. Of course this is not something the Democrats haven’t known, as Hume points out tonight:

Veteran Democratic political consultant Bob Shrum is portraying John Edwards as a political lightweight who was a major disappointment to John Kerry when the two of them ran against President Bush and Vice President Cheney in 2004.

Shrum characterizes Edwards in a new book as, “a Clinton who hadn’t read the books.” He says Kerry — “wished that he’d never picked Edwards, that he should have gone with his gut,” and selected Dick Gephardt.

Shrum is a former campaign aide for Edwards — and their relationship soured when Shrum left the Edwards team to work for Kerry in 2003. This is not the first time he has attacked Edwards.

Shrum IMV is a bit of a jerk, and always has been, but at least a self interested one… meaning he has a fair enough idea what’s what, here. It’s how he managed to survive. My guess is that his report of what John Kerry had to say, is probably accurate.

All that aside, it interests me that John Edwards is talking about bumper stickers, when he uses hairspray to hold bumper stickers on, and everything else for that matter.. the way some guys use duct tape.

* I finally got a good coat of wax on the Buick. I’m quickly learning that a black vehicle is a bit more in a way of upkeep if you want to keep it looking good. On the other hand it looks really good just now. Some may be all that extra exercise was worth it.
* Speaking of looking good, I noticed the old BitsBox… my old Van… out and about last night. I’d forgotten how good that thing looked in the sunlight.

One of my biggest fears for it, was that after all that work, it would end up hauling ladders and paint and tools and such. But no, thankfully, there was a 30 something mom type driving it from what I could see. For reasons I can’t begin to explain to you, I’m somewhat relieved. Maybe it’s the amount of time and effort involved in keeping a vehicle like that up for as long as I did. And certainly there was a level of identification between myself and that truck. It was kind of a rare thing, and those who know me well recognized immediately. Not so much, with this one; it’s a little more standard fare this time around.

As Neil Young once said: Long may you run.

BBIV goes to Elisabeth Hasselbeck, View.  Hasselbeck takes on the windbag, Rosie, “Toyko” O’Donnell and has O’Donnell playing the fat lesbian card.

Howie, Jawa Report:

I can’t even begin to describe how much I enjoyed seeing Rosie backed into a corner unable to defend her indefensible blabbering. I wonder if she will make it 3 more weeks as he seems awfully down on her blog.  Oooopps I almost felt sympathy for traitor, glad I caught myself

Alllahpundit, Hot Air, has the video of the “nuclear war.”   This is about as much agnst as you will see on broadcast television, without any mention of Joseph McCarthy.

Elisabeth is a light-weight, but she does not lack for spunk.  Then Barbara Walters simply not going to bring a conservative of substance on the View.   You go girl!  

(H/T photo:  My Television )

Thus “reason,” as Al Gore uses the term, refers to the ability of the leftist elite to impose its conventional dogmas on the national debate, without the need to persuade or convince others.

Robert Tracinski, Real Clear Politics. 

The Music: Chuck Mangione’s “Freinds and Love” concert, recorded here in Rochester at the Eastman Theatre, 1970. The single it came off of that album, was called “Hill Where The Lord Hides”, which is to this day one of the most powerful records I’ve ever heard in my entire professional life. I still remember the run up to that night. The local pop station, WBBF, was screaming about it for a full month prior to the concert. Some of the names that played at this particular concert you’ll recognize;

Don Potter whose version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” is a classic. he’s since gone on to Christian music, and made a fairly decent mark for himself in that field. Bat McGrath, is perhaps a name only known around here, but who has managed to obtain over the years a legendary status, particularly when playing with Don. Chuck’s brother, Gap, Who, oddly enough, played at my senior prom, of all things. Which will pretty much date the situation, I suppose. Stanley Watson, is a name you should know if you don’t, similarly the names Marvin Stamm and Gerry Niewood, who turned in very memorable solos and went onto solo carreers. Niewood, particularly, I remember fondly warn album he turned out a number of years ago which I still have on file here. Tony Levin, who has played bass on EVERYONE’S LP at one time or another. Bill Reichenbach, you may know from his jazz quartet with Jimmy Johnson and Biff Hannon. The man is also on everyone’s LP… around 800 all told.

You can imagine, that some of this is audio dynamite. I should tell you also, that these albums, of which I have two on file, are going for around $250.00 for the double album set. And my wife said the collection would never amount to much.
It was almost 37 years ago… May 9th of 1970, that Rochester first thrilled to this sound; And what a concert it was. Now, it’s happening again! Alas!, but it’s sold out, already. But at least, since I have the original pressings, and broadcast quality turntables, to convert this stuff over the digital, I can go back. I can only hope they’re rolling some tape on the reunion.

…
* A few months ago, I made note of a trend that I had noticed among newspapers. Newspapers will seldom make any mention of the fact that newspaper readership as a whole has been dropping for several years. Something like whistling in the dark; they don’t want to talk much about their own demise. Perhaps, just perhaps, they are hoping that it won’t happen if they don’t talk about it. But dropping the readership is. Like a stone.

But one thing I noticed some months ago was the idea that the speed with which the readership was dropping was in direct relationship to the editorial policies of the paper. I give you as a quick example, The New York Times. I don’t think I have to tell you that the readership of the gray lady has been dropping like a boulder dropped off the top of the Empire State Building. Similarly, Newsday, which serves more less the same market, but is kind of concentrated on Long Island, and who is also a left leaning paper, is seeing its readership drop also. Funny thing; the New York Sun, is seeing its readership increase by the leaps and bounds. That situation repeats itself in markets all over the country. The left lane INC papers are withering away, and the ones that are not left leaning are doing far better. Some of them , simply holding their own; others seeing rapid increases in readership.

These trends, are easily paralleled in the electronic media. Fox which tends to take a balanced approach, is going great guns, wereas everybody else (NBC CBS ABC, CNN and so on) is so far back the dust is settled by the time they get by.

Something was brought to my attention tonight which brought all of this back to mind . And I think it’s an interesting parallel. Consider church membership, nationwide. I commented, on this site, not so very long ago, that churchgoers didn’t want a more liberal church. That was upon the occasion of the death of Pope John Paul the second. I said, at the time:

-1-

As the Cardinals gather to decide the matter of who will be the next Pope, many are writing to this subject of the future of the church. Peggy Noonan stumbles across something that is an intagable for so many:

You are a cardinal of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, a modern man, and for the past seven days, in private conversations in Rome with cardinals you trust, you’ve been admitting what you would never say in public.

You were shocked at the outpouring for John Paul II. You were shocked at the four million who came to Rome, at the line that stretched across the Tiber, at the tears.

You had no idea.

Not that you didn’t have real affection for the old man. He was probably a saint. All that suffering, dragging his broken body into each day the past five years. That’s a long time on the cross.

But you thought he was yesterday’s news. Everyone had already said goodbye to him at those big audiences in the Paul VI hall. And let’s face it, the church under John Paul was slammed every day as conservative, ossified, reactionary.

Here’s another strange thing. In the polls on churchgoing and belief it’s always Catholics on the street in Europe and America who say they want change and reform. They’d been saying it for years! And yet it was Catholics on the street from Europe and America-real nobodies, not to be impolite but just regular Catholics-who engulfed Rome to weep and yell Santo, Santo!

Dale Franks notes the press and the social left apparently ignoring this outpouring:

One of the most interesting—if irritating—features of the coverage surrounding the death of John Paul II has been the more or less constant harping by the media about the pope’s failure” or “resistance” to modernizing the church’s doctrine

Yet, we see the outpouring of litterally millions who poured into Rome, to pay their respect for the main who as one commenter at Q&O said the other day, shattered “the myth that compassion and theological conservatism are diametrically opposed”

We also hear the calls from around the world, for sainthood for the man the left and the press both within the church and without, are saying doomed the church to irrelivancy with his conservative angle.

So, what’s happening here? Why the apparent disparity?

Well, I did address part of this a few weeks ago. In that BIT, I linked the names of Pope John Paul, Lech Walessa, Margaret Thatcher, and Solzhenitsyn, as as being on the correct side of the fence between good and evil.

Here’s a concept, and one most of those calling for a more liberal outlook from the church can’t handle; The desire really isn’t there for a more liberal outlook from the church. They don’t want the church becoming more friendly to the world, for a simple reason… as Eternity Road remarks this morning:

“A church must, by its very nature, be a conservative institution. The point of a church is the conservation and dissemination of a body of doctrines.”

Within that context, the people have identified what the church stands for is good, and by definition, therefore what seeks to change the church away from that as evil.

That point would seem to be accentuated not only by the current members, but by the number of people who have dropped out of the various branches of the Christian church in recent years, in this way;

While proponents of liberalizing the Church would argue that the Church must respond to the falling membership numbers by veering left so as to become more ‘relevant’, the fact is, veering left has already been done… to the opposite of the stated desire of bringing more people into Church membership. The problem wasn’t that the church wasn’t liberal enough, it was already TOO liberal. Rather like the older gent in the Buick stepping on the gas rather than the brake, the results of the error in judgment are the exact opposite of the desired… and are usually catastrophic.

A look at the relationships between church membership in Non-Roman churches, between liberalized doctrine and falling membership reveals a rather startling picture; While there were falling membership numbers during the 60’s, memberships fell even faster in following years, in direct proportion to the rate at which the various branches of Christiandom liberalized their doctrine. Rather than warming to the idea that the chruch was now being “more inclusive” the numbers of filled pews went down like a stone.

Yeah… “Oops”.

It’s true that many within (And more without) the church will not be able to get their mind around those facts,(Usually responding with charges of rampant bigotry within the church) but those ARE the facts.

Now, it should be noted as a practical matter, that the chances of any Pope being elected out of this conclave being significantly more approved of by say, an Andrew Sullivan type… is very small indeed, given that the vast majority of the Cardinals now in Rome deciding this matter are appointees of Pope John Paul II, and so are likely to be following in his footsteps.

What I’m suggesting, here is that we should not look for any major changes in polcy coming from Rome in this next Pope… for two reasons….

* The people within the church, really don’t want a liberalized doctrine.

* Nor do the any of the Cardinals now deciding who will next incarnation of Peter will be.

And that, given the facts we see of the last 50 years, would seem to be the best outcome.

-0-.

My friend, that I spoke with today, who brought all of this to mind, drew the conclusion that much the same as the newspaper readership is down in direct relationship dollar brawl the paper is, church membership, also is down, also in direct relationship to haul Liberal the church is. At the leading edge of this downfall in membership is the Episcopal church, and the Presbyterian church, both of whom have fallen victim to the pro homosexual agenda. The troubles within the catholic church, I have already mentioned in the quoted article.

If we are to take these events at face value, we must conclude that institutions fail in direct proportion to how absorbed in the liberal philosophy they become. These points I’ve raised would seem to suggest an anti leftist bias in the general population.

I wonder; does this give us any lessons to be learned for the next election? Might this trend, that I have noted, explain why the only person on either side of the aisle who is generating any excitement at all in the oncoming presidential race is Fred Thompson, who has not even declared he’s running yet?

Just as John McCain is a RINO, republican in name only, Ron Paul is SINO, sane in name only.  Brian, Iowa Voice, provides conclusive evidence Paul is a moonbat.   Paul is no more sane than Ross Perot or Dennis Kuchinich.

Get this nutcase off of our stage.

(H/T:  Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters)?

Noted at AJ Strata’s place:

I hate to say to the liberals I told you so, but I have been saying the ‘science’ on the matter of what is the force behind the Global Warming does not exist in the sense of established fact or accepted theories. It is all speculation and there are many, solid diverging views:

Many former believers in catastrophic man-made global warming have recently reversed themselves and are now climate skeptics. The names included below are just a sampling of the prominent scientists who have spoken out recently to oppose former Vice President Al Gore, the United Nations, and the media driven “consensus” on man-made global warming.

The list below is just the tip of the iceberg. A more detailed and comprehensive sampling of scientists who have only recently spoken out against climate hysteria will be forthcoming in a soon to be released U.S. Senate report.

AJ correctly notes that the ground has shifted on this stuff. None too soon.

NBC, accuses Rush Limbaugh of mocking Barrack Obama.  Ian, Hot Air, has the video.

Yet for all the pomposity, NBC, blindly or willfully, misses the point.  Clarence Page explains what NBC missed:

The song actually mocks Sharpton more than Obama. The flamboyant Harlem preacher and talk radio host comes off as a resentful old-school polarizer who doesn’t like to be upstaged by an upstart.

Page is right, poltical satire is protected free speech.  Yet I will go further than Page, not only is mocking a unban terrorist and political charlatan like Al Sharpton protected political free speech, it is civic duty.

Addendum: (Bit)

The reason for the smear, of course is to generate viewership numbers… numbers the No Brains Channel has been seriously LACKING of late, as they tilt further and further left.

Consider also, that this nonsense is two months old, already. It took them this long to whip it ip this far? And finally, consider the parody was actually in response to the LA TIMES article… as the Radio Equalizer has repeatedly pointed out. Where is NBC’s ire for the LA Times?

NBC knew all of this. Their intent, again, was a smear against Limbaugh. As Limbaugh himself says:

 They interviewed Michael Medved about it to get a voice agreeing with my side.  They didn’t use him at all.  They just used this hack from the George Soros funded front group for the Democrat Party, Media Matters for America.  It’s pathetic.  They’re posting the lowest ratings they’ve posted in years, they’re just barely ahead of Good Morning America — they’ve got a smaller audience than we do.  They had to try to get this wrong.  There’s no other way this could happen.  They don’t even understand the point of the parody, “Barack, ‘the Magic Negro’.”  It’s a piece on Al Sharpton.  It’s not even a hit piece on Obama, and everything in it was originated by libs. You know all this.  Here I am doing a three-quel now.  This is about a 14-quel trying to explain this, and they just don’t want to get it right.  I’ve got the piece here, the audio, but I don’t even know if I want to play it.  It’s just giving more attention to the Today Show and that stupid reporter that they used.  It’s just a smear.

SAN FRANCISCO –KUTV– A California lawmaker, who favors a penalty for people caught driving while using their cell phone, reportedly caused a car accident this weekend – while she was on her cell phone.

State Sen. Carole Migden, 58, D-San Francisco, was driving her state-issued SUV near Vallejo on Friday morning when she rear-ended another vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Officials say the vehicle in front of Migden was slowing down for a red light, when the senator slammed into the back of the car – which then ran into another van.

One driver complained of minor injuries, and Migden has taken responsibility for the crash.

Yet another example of the standing order from Democrats: Do as I say, not as I do.

Billy, home just yesterday, has apaprently recovered enough to start writing again, in this case about the monster being hatched on the American people, known as the “immigration bill “.

I am a lot more concerned with the implications for Americans than those for people who would become Americans, and the very first one of concern, to me, is alluded to by Jim Harper at the Cato Institute blog:

“Like many, I’ll be watching carefully to see if a national ID system is part of the ineluctable logic of the immigration reform deal that has been struck.”

If the “employment verification” element of this thing takes effect, then “national ID” will have been just as effectively established at the very heart of the American ideal: the individual impetus and political leave to produce.

What we’re talking about, ladies and gentlemen, is the nationalization of work, itself.

It’s a worthy read, which I advise you to do.

But while I find many points of agreement in what he says, I do have some serious concerns about the last line in the quote, because I think he’s missing something important…. I have expressed some concern in the past that this bill ends Amerca as we know it, by means of destroying the idea of being a citizen means.

Thus my question of Billy; doesn’t nationalization of work, require a NATION?

I would submit to you that what we’re seeing here is something begun a long time ago, in the intent to end the US as a nation. This bill is simply a logical step along that road. This is more key to this whole thing than it appears…

You see, I take the definition of ‘nation’ to be the first in the longish line of definitions:

a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own

Note that in this, the very first definition, the people are defined before it’s government can exist, which is exactly in concert with my take that government, in it’s original definition was a tool of the culture… a situation almost exactly opposite to the situation of today… and more completely opposite once this bill gets enacted.  The government now exists not to serve the culture, but in spite of it, and in control of it’s demise. How long can a Nation last under these conditions? Not long, I fear.

Principles, which are what Billy argues from, are vital, important and foundational, certainly.

However, what is equally vital, important and foundational, is a culture that understands that; understands and holds high those principles, that shares the worldview involving those principles.  Cultures each have their own way of viewing the world. The reason our nation’s foundational principles have worked for as long as they have is because of a shared culture we had, in which is/was a shared worldview.

Someone running through a building, and shouting:

???????! ?????!

… isn’t much good if the people inside the building don’t understand Japanese, only understanding English. However, screaming it in English,… 

The building is on fire! Get out now!

… has a far better chance of affecting positively the lives of the people in the building…

By the same token, principles, and facts continue to exist, but aren’t much good, if people don’t see them as such, and react accordingly. Dillute the culture, change it (or eliminate it), and you have a completely different worldview, wherein people do not share what were once principles we held high. And who will argue for those principles, then?

That becomes more of a problem when you change the culture on so massive a scale as this bill.

It’s as I’ve been saying all along; for this culture’s principles to remain, the culture itself must remain, be promoted and protected. That’s government’s first task. This bill doesn’t do that, instead putting government at the top fo the heap, by reducing the culture,a nd in time, changing it at the root.

Bad move, and one we should never allow.