Perils for Mrs. Clinton From This Side Fo the Pond

Mrs. Clinton’s theory of winning the presidency based her sex took a hit when French voters rejected socialist Ségolène Royal.   David Bouder reports on another hit to Mrs. Clinton’s theory:

NEW YORK (AP) – It surely wasn’t what CBS dreamed about when Katie Couric was hired: the “CBS Evening News” last week recorded its smallest audience since and probably many years before that.

Then unlike Mrs. Clinton, Couric at least has a personality.   Will Mark Penn attempt to spin this one as well?

It’s a bit warmer around here of late, currently 71° at sunset.  Rather nice, actually.  And as warm as it’s been all year.

* No music? No, I’ll save my music comments for last. You’ll see why.
* Boortz makes note of an interesting, if predictable demographic trend:

Here’s an interesting study about a migration that is taking place inside America. There are so many interesting aspects to this story. In the huge costal cities Americans are moving out and, according to the author, “immigrants” are moving in. He won’t say it, but by “immigrants” he means illegal aliens. Hispanics. The cities worst affected are cities that vote Democrat.

Barone mentions this one, too.

And this should be no surprise; the takeover is going exactly according to plan.

* Speaking of such matters,  Mark Kirkorian makes an excellent point about today’s Ft Dix plot:

They were doing jobs Americans won’t do — no, I don’t mean plotting to kill our soldiers. The three Kosovar illegal-alien brothers were roofers, precisely the kind of job that amnesty-boosters tell us we need immigrants for. In fact, I’ll be testifying Thursday before the House Small Business Committee, where one of the other witnesses will be someone from the roofing contractors’ association arguing for amnesty and even more immigration.

* You know, for all the noise being made about President Bush making light of his verbal slip by giving the Queen a wink, there’s something that they have forgotten to account for; the Queen, actually has a sense of humor , which is apparently something they lack…  as well as, apparently, the ability to tell the truth. Hume, tonight:

The London Daily Mail claimed today that President Bush drew a frosty stare from Queen Elizabeth over a verbal stumble during the welcoming ceremonies at the White House yesterday. Mr. Bush started to say that the queen had been present at the American bicentennial in 1776, then corrected himself and said 1976, and winked at her as shown in this photo. That wink said the Mail is what drew the icy stare purportedly shown in this photo.

But notice that the queen has miraculously and instantaneously gone from the president’s left to his right. The photo desk at the Mail explained that the second picture was taken later, after the queen had gone to the lectern to speak, which means the look on her face was obviously not a reaction to the Presidential wink.

Amazing, isn’t it, what depths BDS will drive a person to?

* Congrats to Chuck Simmins, who got a mention from Michelle (Sigh) back on the 29th. I’d be interested in looking at your counter numbers, there, Chuck. By the way,  do you happen to remember that gas tank for rollover on I-390 South a few years ago?

* So, the source of the quote means more than what the quote says? I mean what about the quote itself is bothersome? Personally, I find quotes from Al Sharpton offensive. Does that mean I can shout them down on the Senate Floor?

* The mental midgets at the RIAA still can’t figure out why people are bent out of shape, and why sales are going down. THeir answer? Why of course… what would you expect from a group of people from the LA basin? More legislation.

Better than half my music collection is from one of the used record shops in town… or off E-Bay…(And that includes my 25000 or so records, as well as a few thousand CD’s) . Longtime readers will know that when I make reference to an album, I generally provide EBay links. The reasons for this should be self evident.

But let’s take what the music producers are demanding, and translated over to something else entirely….  The kind of legislation in question, if translated to the automotive sector, would mean that used car sales would be forbidden.  After all, the automakers don’t receive any money on a resale.  It would also mean that aftermarket car parts, including junkyards, would be verboten. Sound fair to you?

It’s getting to the point, where with the exception of maintenance of my personal collection, I’ve lost all interest in what’s going on in the music world.  As for the solution for dropping sales, maybe a good product would be a good place to start?  It’s just a thought.

Which brings to mind the other reason why I haven’t made any references to recent product of the recording industry; None of it’s worth writing about.

And yes, I’m quite serious…. with the exception of much of the jazz recordings today, and some country stuff.
Jazz has been pretty much holding its own, sales wise, for the past several years.  Country, meantime, at least in terms of market share, is going through the roof.  The reason for that, is simple enough, the pop music world left most of its audience behind them years ago.  With no place left to go  they suddenly discovered country.  Country is the new pop, really.
Granted that some of that was set up by the southern rock era, and the crossover country era that followed it in the early nineteen eighties.

I’ve not heard a decent pop recording for quite a while, though. Pop was the bread and butter of the record companies and it’s basically been blown up  the the sheer volume of fertilizer that was spread on pop stations, and still is.

Add to that the hassle of dealiing with a greedy RIAA , and you begin to understand the depth of the issue.With all respect of Buddy Holly, the music didn’t die when he did.  (apologies to Don MacLean ) in reality, the music died somewhere around 1995.  It had, however, been dying for good deal of time before that.

Gee. A terror plot involving “Islamic radicals.” Imagine that.

Sister Toldjah

?

The Star-Ledger is reporting:

Federal investigators last night arrested six Islamic radicals who were planning a heavily armed attack against soldiers at Fort Dix as part of a jihad against America, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In a statement released this morning that confirmed an earlier report on nj.com, The Star-Ledger’s website, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the men planned to “kill as many soldiers as possible.”

The alleged plot included conducting surveillance of the Army base and purchasing multiple firearms, including hand guns, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, according to the federal complaint released this morning.

The bust came after several of the suspects were lured by a secret informant to a meeting with an arms-seller, according to the complaint.
Some of the would-be attackers have been living illegally in the United States, while others are legal immigrants, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Four are ethnic Albanians, one was born in Turkey, and a sixth was born in Jordan, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

As you can imagine, there’s a good deal of whatter about just why this particular target was chosen, since Dix, which it has a number of mid-level activities, is not exactly in the first row of targets.

The obvious answer is that being a lower level target, it is also a SOFTER target and thereby more likely to suffer casualties…. and given it’s proximity to NYC, is a target which will generate headlines, which is always the target of any terrorist attack.

Must have been a slow news day.   The media has a stock of standard stories they periodically dust-off and then foist-off as if they were new.   The nice thing about blogging about them, is that no new creative effort is required to refute them.

Will Lester pens a 512 word article infering intentional racial bias in auto loans: 

Blacks have been charged higher auto loan rates than other auto buyers, federal research says. But the gap in loan rates could narrow, and possibly disappear, as the result of recently concluded lawsuits 

There is a simple method to determine racial bias in lending, compare default rates.   If lenders discriminated on the basis of race, say against blacks, then blacks would have a lower default rate.   Blacks would have a lower default rate because lenders would be requiring them to be more credit worthy.

Yet of all the words Lester uses, default is not one of them.   Lower default rate for blacks would have established Lester’s arguement.  Its ommission is telling.

Such discrimination makes no economic sense.  Lenders are in the business of making good loans, so as recieve interest on them.   Lenders want to make money,  Turning away good business does not make money.

Lester cites no evidence of race being a factor in loan approval:

Lenders’ suggested quote rates are based largely on the buyer’s credit history, but auto dealers often raise the rate higher than that risk-related rate without discussing the rate with the customer, consumer advocates said. And they question the causes of those rate differences.

”It’s hard to believe that any differences in creditworthiness explain all of these rate gaps,” said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America. “They size you up, the car salesmen and finance and interest guys. They must think African-Americans are more vulnerable to a markup.”

Lester seems unmoved by lenders’ assertion.  Yet disbelief on the part of the either economically illiterate or politically motivated is hardly credible evidence.    If as Lester asserted, lenders charged arbitarily higher rates to blacks, there would be evidence in the default rates, of which Lester does not write.

Kerstin Gehmlich reports on a potential pitfall for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign:

PARIS (Reuters) – Socialist Segolene Royal failed to win over a majority of women voters in France’s presidential election and may have paid a price for focusing too much on her gender at the expense of promoting her policies.

Only 48 percent of women voted for Royal, according to an Ipsos poll conducted on election day on Sunday, while 52 percent supported rightist rival and overall winner Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mrs. Clinton faces a daunting challenge.  She can either campaign on her sex, to become the first female president; openly on her politics to be the first sociaist president, or campaign as the charlatan.   Her choice is obvious.

More, Don Surber asks is it “[a] sign for Hillary?”

Addendum : (Bit)

Boortz is reporting that Hillary Clinton’s handlers are in damage control mode, this morning:

So .. today we find Hillary’s Handlers in damage control mode. They’re out there telling us that the comparisons between Hillary and Segolene are just flat-out invalid.

Question: What do you think Hillary’s handlers would be saying if Segolene had won? Do you believe for a minute that Wolfson et al would be trumpeting Segolene’s win as good news for Hillary and an indication that modern voters aren’t afraid to support a woman for their leader.

Neal’s point of course is quite correct. (As is usual when I quote him.)

Had Royal won, Hillary would be trying to ride that victory to her own win here in the States. As it is, she’s desperate to distance herself from it.

The Music:

OK, this is going to be a little odd; I’m actually listening to the soundtrack from Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.

Sometimes, particularly after you’ve heard a sound track a few times, by virtue of seeing the movie, it’s nice to examine the music itself. Given the epic nature of the film, the music is somewhat more bombastic than most, but appropriately so. Howard Shore earned his keep with this one.
* This makes me mindful of the last time I tried to ride in a Ford Fiesta. Never again, with those small cars. Never again. Not only for comfort reasons, but for safety as well; paid a good friend I’m one of those things a few years ago.  It’s not an experience I’d like to live through myself.  To do it non stop for two weeks? Ouch.

This furthers my arguments about the international press..

Not only did the Associated Press bury their report that 367 cars had been torched in France, now it turns out that the media have been lying about the violence.

Because the actual number of cars destroyed by “youths” last night was 730—about twice the number reported by the AP.

You see, I’ve already put up two posts about this today, but this is too rich not to mention it at some point, so I may as well put it in the ramble. As LGF indicates later in the same article, The French media has declared openly that they’re going to cover up the true extent of violence.  And as he further points out, the French constitutional council has recently passed a law criminalizing the reporting of acts of violence by anyone other than “professional journalists”.
The reason of course for this, is that so-called “professional” journalist can be easily controlled by the leftists in power.  approach the main reason, that this is not being reported, is the rather obvious link between that violence and Royale calling for it. here and the states, we call such things inciting a riot.  That would be something that she would bear direct responsibility for.  In this case, in socialist France, we seem to have found a way around these problems; simply ignore them.
There’s also a major reason why this is not being reported widely here in the states; it’s because there’s an awful lot of parallels going on, between Royale, and Hillary Clinton, and their supporters. I don’t think it’s going to take a great deal of transposition, to come up with similar scenarios, here in the states, following the ’08 elections. However, I will tell you up front that that’s precisely what’s going to happen.  You may think that a bold, and somewhat outlandish production, but I don’t think so.

Perhaps if you were to consider closely the unbridled illogical and unreasoning anger on the part of the democrats, that’s been there since Al Gore lost in 2000…. you’d understand.
Unfortunately, that comparison works both ways; Sarkozy is about to experience the same kind of media smear treatments that George Bush has been experiencing your own home.  I can’t imagine that he didn’t understand that, going in; Sarkozy is no dummy.  And that’s a bit of comfort, on that score.  Still, I don’t think I’d like to be in his shoes, right now.

And what of Royal?

Newt Gingrich who has been often wrong, recently, still makes an interesting comment today in Human Events:

Incumbent French President Jacques Chirac had been twice elected, has served a total of 12 years in office, and is very unpopular. Coming into this election, people were very tired of the Chirac government and there was a sense that there had to be change.

But the opposition on the left, the Socialist Party, failed completely to capitalize on this desire for change. They nominated a candidate of great achievement, Ségolène Royal, but she proved herself to be the candidate of the status quo, not the candidate of change. She was actually committed to keeping all the bureaucracies that were failing and all the policies that were creating unemployment. She was committed to avoiding the changes necessary for a French future of prosperity, opportunity and safety.

What Gingrich fails to realize, is precisely what the left worldwide fails to understand; change for its own sake isn’t the issue.  What you change two, has to work; socialism never does.  Never has.  Never will.  Apparently, somewhere north of 53% of the French nation, has figured out that particular point.
Gingrich, also, however, paints a picture of Sarkozy, that is very different from what the mainstream press here in the states will tell you;

He was born of Hungarian parents who had fled communism in Eastern Europe. That makes him the first president of France who is a first-generation immigrant. It also means his name doesn’t sound very French. And his style certainly isn’t very French. He is a tough, confrontational leader — a man who has been preaching things that don’t sound very much like the French establishment.

In the campaign, Sarkozy argued that the French have to work longer hours and, in order to give them an incentive to do so, that they shouldn’t pay taxes if they work overtime. He called for tax cuts to encourage investment so the private sector can create jobs. And critically, Sarkozy has said that the people must obey the law, that the creation of law and respect for the law is a central part of any civilized society.

Newt’s quite correct, that this doesn’t sound like the French establishment.  The reasons for this difference are mentioned in the first sentence of the “; he was born of Hungarian parents who fled communism in Eastern Europe.  Here is someone who knows firsthand the the road the French were on.  He knows what a disaster socialism is, from apparently very painful firsthand experience.

There is, however, a lesson there for those of us here in the united states; cool, in the leadership of either the democrats or the republicans, can make the statement that they know firsthand what a disaster socialism is?  Thereby, how can we be assured that they are not going to lead us down the disastrous road the French have been traveling, and if only just recently, and perhaps too late, turned away from?

* I’m not getting a great deal of reports on this just now, or rather, a great amount of detail, but this API report appears to be the best of the bunch at the moment:

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A device left in a casino parking garage exploded early Monday, killing a man who tried to pick it up off the top of his car, authorities said.

The device exploded shortly after 4 a.m. on the second floor of a parking garage behind the Luxor hotel-casino, said Officer Bill Cassell, a police spokesman. He declined to describe the device, but said initial reports that it was inside a backpack were wrong.

The blast was not a terrorist act but an apparent murder of a man who worked at a business inside the hotel, he said, adding that the case was being investigated as “a homicide with an unusual weapon.”

No threat had been made against the Luxor, Cassell said.

There is something strange about all of this, that I can’t quite put my finger on.  But I get the impression, that we’re going to learn more as this goes on.

* I’m sad to see Lileks has lost his perch at the Strib, more or less. I do, however, have confidence that he will be relocated in short order; the talent like that cannot languish for long.

James Lileks, a terrific writer and one of the best newspaper columnists in America, says on his blog today that his newspaper, the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star-Tribune, has decided to kill his column and have him write straight local news stories. This is like the Miami Heat deciding to relieve Dwyane Wade of his basketball-playing obligations so he can keep stats.

Dave Barry.

(H/T:  Don Surber )

The Associated Press reported on republican in general, and the Rudy Guliani campaign in particualr, dissatisfaction  with the selction of Keith Olbermann as republican debate moderator.

Greenwald seemed to resent the characterization of Olbermann as the partisan hack that he is.   Greenwald attempts to paint Brett Hume as a paristan hack, ala Olbermann.

Now, Hume does do both news and commentary.   However Hume restricts his commentary to Fox New Sunday while sitting as member of the panel and not as host.

The only example Greenwald cited of Hume alledged bias was when Hume skewed John “Okinawa” Murtha while one the FNS panel.  I blogged on Hume’s commentary, here.   Greenwald omits the fact that Hume’s opinion of Murtha was consistent with that of the Washington Post.   So Greenwald equates Hume to a paristan hack, because Hume gives commentary while sitting on a panel of  commentators.

Addendum:   Noel Sheppard, News Busters, paints with a some what wider brush:

After reading Joan Walsh and Glenn Greenwald’s articles at Salon Monday, one could certainly come to the conclusion that such an affliction exists, and that the two are suffering from this little known psychological impairment “Olbermann Derangement Syndrome.”

Continuing from the earlier post, there’s another lesson we can learn from recent events in Europe: Perhaps our image in the world isn’t quite so damaged as the left would have us think.

We have in France a President who ran a very loud campaign, saying he wanted to be freinds with the US, and the people of France overwhemingly elected him, over the socialist running an anti-US campaign.

Taken somewhat further, we have a German Chancellor,  Angela Merkel who has publicly taken a farm warmer stance toward the US than that of her predesessors and those running against her for the position… and yet her approval numbers are quite high, indeed.

Taken seperately, these situations would seem to fly in the face of the image being pushed by the left… and the press…( Yes, a repetition, that) that our image in the world has suffered geratly at the hands of President Bush. Taken together, they disprove that myth outright, and cast some serious question about the biases within our press, and on the credibility of the Democrats and the press both.

I think there’s a lesson there for Republicans here at home..

CAMARILLO, Calif. â€”AP–  Gasoline prices have surged to a record nationwide average of $3.07 per gallon, nearly 20 cents higher than two weeks earlier, according to oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg.

The previous record was $3.03 per gallon on Aug. 11, 2006.

But despite inventory fears that have sent prices higher, there are signs that the rising prices at the pump may be peaking.

So along comes Chuckles “The Clown” Schumer. Who does he blame for this? Why, the Oil companies, of course.

With gas prices already skyrocketing to $3.14 per gallon across New York City and threatening to reach record highs this summer, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer Sunday said the nation’s oil refineries are operating below capacity, contributing to price spikes at New York gas pumps.

Recent unexpected operational and infrastructure problems at leading oil refineries, including an explosion at a major Oklahoma refinery last week, have disrupted the nation’s gasoline supply. Schumer is concerned the nation’s big oil companies have been reluctant to reinvest record profits into maintaining their refineries and increasing capacity, instead opting to keep capacity tight to justify price spikes when unexpected bad weather or outages occur.  

The senator Sunday called for the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full investigation into why Big Oil companies have failed to increase total refinery capacity to keep pace with consumer demand. He is also seeking answers to whether this failure to invest in new infrastructure has contributed to the recent rash of refinery outages and rising prices at New York gas pumps.

“Despite record billion dollar profits, it seems the big oil companies are willing to turn a blind eye to their decrepit oil refineries and risk fires and explosions that could not only cripple the nation’s oil supply, but also stick New Yorkers with skyrocketing prices at the pumps,” said Schumer. “Instead of putting profits straight into their pockets, oil companies should be investing in their refineries so our nation’s gasoline supply stays high while prices at New York gas pumps stay low.”

 

Hey, Chuck?  I know this kind of thing is a little beyond you, but try to pay attention:

PHILADELPHIA, May 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Sunoco, Inc. today reported net income of $175 million ($1.44 per share diluted) for the first quarter of 2007 versus $79 million ($0.59 per share diluted) for the first quarter of 2006. Excluding special items, income was $85 million ($0.70 per share diluted) for the current quarter. There were no special items in the first quarter of 2006.“While refining margins and operating income were improved versus last year’s comparable period, our results were significantly limited by the major turnaround and expansion work at our Philadelphia refinery,” said John G. Drosdick, Sunoco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “This $520 million project reduced first-quarter refinery production by approximately nine million barrels and also contributed to higher average crude oil costs and the sale of low-valued residual fuel inventory. The timing of this downtime and its associated impacts occurred during the part of the quarter when margins in the Northeast were at their highest levels. Also in the Northeast, a loss of steam from a power outage at a third-party supplier resulted in an unplanned shutdown of the Marcus Hook refinery in February that reduced throughput by an additional one million barrels.

“With the recent completion of the Philadelphia turnaround and fluid catalytic cracking unit expansion project,” continued Drosdick, “our Northeast refining system is now returning to normal operations as we enter the summer driving season. In addition to the expansion of the catalytic cracking unit’s capacity from 70 to 85 thousand barrels per day, we expect the project will provide us with the ability to upgrade an additional 15-20 thousand barrels per day of low-value residual fuel oil into higher-value gasoline and distillate products and demonstrate the increased earnings power of these assets.”

 Now, nobody can predict a power outage. But consider the question of why it is they undertook such a project in the first quarter. Governmental regulations. All in the name of ‘the environment’, of course. 

Added details reveal the Texas City refinery was also mostly offline through the period. And yes, it’s because of a lack of refining capacity that we’re in this mess. But here ’tis:

Why would the capacity be that low? Because there’s no investment incentive in adding new capacity, given the regulatory state of affairs.

So, who’s holding YOU accountable for this mess you’ve led us into, Chuck?  Instead of pointing the finger of blame at the Oil companies, how about reducing the regulations on them so we don’t have to go through this every year?

Financial Times– Paris– Let the finger-pointing begin. Ségolène Royal’s defeat on Sunday night left the French Socialist party in disarray and searching for someone to blame. There is hardly a shortage of scapegoats.

It is the party’s third consecutive presidential defeat. The Socialists now face the question of whether they can ever regain power without ditching their anti-capitalist rhetoric, as the mainstream left has done across almost all of Europe.

McQ sees the same article, and doubts it.

And see where things have gotten, here:

“The left is not credible on so many issues, from the 35-hour working week to immigration and law and order,” says Dominique Reynié, professor at Sciences Po university.

“It is the fault of the left collectively. Ever since their [parliamentary election] defeat in 1983 they have never questioned their fundamental ideology, only thinking they needed to change tactics,” he says.

But it is interesting to me, that whilst the European left has been edging up to the right, and away from their anti-freedom/anti-capitalism ways, (with the rather spectacular exception of the French Socialists ) the American left has been going going in exactly the opposite direction… in the direction that just lost the French Socialists, the election there.

For the purpose of clarity, I will say again, I am not convinced that the election of this new president is a good thing. That remains to be seen. However, I am convinced that Ségolène Royal’s losing that election,  IS a good thing.

Addendum:

In answer to those who suggest that a minority of French Citizens actually voted, an dtherefore this rejection of socialism cannot be taken as seriously as all that, I’ll point to a BBC article, which is reporting an 85% voter turnout. Since in the case of American elections… and, I’m sure, elsewhere… we’ve been gleefully informed that elections installing leftists… such as the most recent American mid-term elections… are serious indicators of support for socialsm, I’m sure we’ll see the press suggesting that the French have rejected socialism on the basis of this turnout.

(Yeah, right)

How dumb can dumb get?  In the case of Sheryl Crow, it is pretty dumb.  From the Puffington Post:

We have risen to great heights of arrogance in our refusal to acknowledge that the earth is changing.

Can Crow name one, just one, scientist who thinks tha Earth’s climate is not changing?  Can Crow name one period of time where the Climate did not change.   Smart people realize that the Earth’s climate has always changed.  Change is normal.

Can Crow present any evidence that human can control global climate?  As humans lack the ability to control global climate, it is absurd of Crow to moan about our lack of commitment to do what can not be done.

(H/T photo; Ballz )

Cliintoniods call it parsing, like the meaning of the word ‘is.” Normal folks just call it lying.  B.J. Clinton could lie with finese.  Alas, Mrs. Clinton lacks her husbands language skill.

Here is what the Pinch Sulzberg vanity blog is reporting:

Talking to reporters after her floor speech in a mostly empty Senate chamber, Mrs. Clinton indicated that her view was that rescinding the original vote would mean that troops would be out as of October. “They have no authority to continue,” she said. “That is the point.”

Later, however, her aides said Mrs. Clinton was not seeking a total withdrawal of troops from Iraq, or a quick pullout that could put troops at risk. They said she had called for a phased pullout that would leave a reduced American force to pursue terrorist cells in Iraq, support the Kurds and conduct other missions — a position she continued to support, her aides said.

How to make sense of what Mrs. Clinton is saying  On one paw, she says her plan will get U.S. troops out of Iraq,   On the other paw, she,  or her aides, say her plan will not will not.  Does Mrs. Clinton understand what she is saying?  Evidently not.

PARIS, France (CNN) — Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy greeted news of his election Sunday to a five-year term as France’s president with a vow to serve as a leader for all people of France.

“The president of the republic must love and respect all the French,” he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. “I will be the president of all the French people.

Sarkozy won with 53 percent of the vote, according to polls for France’s state-run network, France 2.

Given the state of things, over there, I wonder if this would be an improvement over the socialists, or not.   Time will tell.