Leading Election Indicator

Fred Thompson does it again; Shows us exactly the way he thinks… and his prospects continue to rise:

Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half.

Remarkably, this has happened despite the financial trauma of 9/11 and the cost of the War on Terror. The deficit, compared to the entire economy, is well below the average for the last 35 years and, at this rate, the budget will be in surplus by 2010.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this success story is where the increased revenues are coming from. Critics claimed that across-the-board tax cuts were some sort of gift to the rich but, on the contrary, the wealthy are paying a greater percentage of the national bill than ever before.

The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%.

Gee, guess where he’s going with this campaign?

That storm finally showed up.

Of course, it’s mostly to the east of us, now, as you see… (Drill it for full size)  It’s going down just as I anticipated it would be.  If I’m not mistaken I predicted in these spaces that’s exactly what would happen.

The storm may actually get a little fatter, and cover us, here in Rochester, too, but I doubt it’ll amount to much even assuming it does.
Still, the day’s kind of screwed up; I’ve got a lot of work to do on BitsBox, and I can’t do it in this weather. Ditto, the yard, and the house. I’d like to put a new Antenna on top of the house, for the new TV.

(Sigh) It’s supposed to be nicer next weekend.  We’ll see. Good thing, too; I’m supposed to be getting the trailer from storage next weekend.
By the way, I got the graphic from Intellicast.com… Who, in my opinion has the best radar tools around. No, I’m not getting dime one from them, though I suppose I should.

Was Don Imus’s great crime uttering a phrase common to [c]rap music, or just offending Media Matters, a front group for Mrs. Clinton?   It appears to be the latter.  It was Media Matters, and not Imus’ audience, which touched off the firestorm.  Brooks Barnes, Emily Steel and Sarah McBride, report on “Behind the Fall of Imus, A Digital Brush Fire:”

Karen Tumulty of the liberal rag, Time, made Keith Overbit’s Worst Person in the World for daring to question Mrs. Clinton’s website.   Are there any limits to the lengths Mrs. Clinton will go to silence her critics?

(H/T:  Sweetness & Lignt )

So, with Don Imus no longer on the airwaves, the logical question to ask is “what’s next?”  What all of this is examined, twenty years from now, the major mistake that Imus made will be determined as giving Sharpton credibility by showing up to Sharpton’s radio show on his knees, and begging forgiveness.

First of all, who carries Sharpton’s radio show, in any event?  I wonder if it’s possible for the remainder of America to pressure whatever sponsors he has to remove him from the airwaves?

Sharpton seems to be leveraging the idea that the electromagnetic spectrum has always been considered to be public property.  So enamored with that idea was he, in fact, that he seemingly forgot that MSNBC is a CABLE channel, and thereby not on broadcast television. That point aside, however, one wonders, if what we’re dealing with here, isn’t the death of terrestrial broadcasting as we have known it.  I grant that sounds fairly dramatic, but I’d like you to consider something;

Given the polling data cited by Billy Beck yesterday, where the vast majority of Americans polled, don’t want Imus fired, perhaps the question ought to be asked, who left Al Sharpton in charge of what can and cannot be set on the radio?  From what does he attain the moral authority to make those kind of decisions for the rest of us? With such a person in charge of what can and cannot be said, or even the kind of ideologue that Sharpton is, being in charge, even if it isn’t Sharpton himself , will the end of fact be driving listeners to such outlets as satellite radio, and the Internet as speech on Terrestrial radio becomes increasingly controlled by the far left?
Which of itself raises the next logical question;

Imus is gone, the beast has been fed. The problem with feeding the beast, hoping he’ll go away, is that after a time, he will come back, being hungry again.  When he does come back he’s going to be much stronger.  So it is in this case.
Before long, so strengthened, the beast will now go about attacking other voices on traditional radio.  Once the demons of talk radio are under control, does anybody even slightly doubt that the Internet will be next on their list of things to control?

You may be shocked to know, that I am not George Gallop and I am not a pollster.  I can’t conduct a nationwide poll.   I did conduct an unscientific poll this morning.   I am not even Dick Morris, who claims to be able conduct a nationwide poll over night. 

However I do have two eyes, two ears and the connective tissue between them. 

The drive-by media treats the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as deities.   In contrast the general puplic treats them like hucksters, here ,here ,here

Jason Whitlock, a sports columist, uses CNN”s Tucker Carlson for batting practice.   Hint Carlson is the one in the bow tiie.  Whitlock is one making sense.  Big Lead has the story,    Give Whitlock Carlston’s gig, but drop the bow tie.   What Whitlocks is saying is out step with the MSM, but in step with the public.

Aside, to Whitlock:  lose some weight.  Rush Limbaugh did it.  So can  you.  We want to keep you around awhile.

(H/T:  Allah Pundit, Hot Air )

The toxicity of Mr. Sulzberger’s remarks, the innocence of his targets, and his refusal to put down the shovel — he dug himself deeper just about every time he published his paper

A description of the New York Times treatment of Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans lightly paraphrased from the papers reporting on Don Imus.   Mr. Sulzberger, apologize now.

The Music: Gordon Lightfoot’s “Endless Wire”

This would be what, his 13th album? I think so, anyway. Weird, given I’m writing this on April the 13th.

Anyway, it was recorded at Eastern Sound in nearby Toronto, in November of 77, and released in 1978, and made it’s presence felt nearly all the Billboard lists of the day, in some fashion.

I suppose that you can’t live anywhere near the Canadian border, without becoming at least somewhat familiar with the music of Gordon Lightfoot.  The man’s been around forever, And if you listen the Canadian stations at all, everybody and their brother is playing at least a little of him.  (Canadian content regulations being what they are.  ) By 78, when this album came out, he was pretty much an institution in the western world.
Still, I’m glad for the introduction; I have a fairly substantial collection of his stuff, and this particular LP is pivotal in his career. Yes, I’m aware that it was pretty much a continuation of “Summertime dream” but in that continuation was a statement; “I’m not going back to the old style… to the “If you could read my mind/Sit down young stranger” genre… Lightfoot was moving away from the ‘Peter Paul and Mary’ -ish sound of his earlier stuff, which was quite respectable, and some of his best, but dreadfully limiting. “Summertime dream” was at the time of its release considered a onetime shot, that he would retreat from.  This album closed the door on that speculation.

There were those who suggested that the changes had something to do with the marital troubles he was having at the time, and his battle with the bottle.  Personally I don’t think so.  Musicians, particularly writers, tend to grow.  My perception of the folk music types of that time… and I knew quite a few for reasons I won’t get into here, except to say I mixed sound for quite a few… was that for all the talking about a world changing all the time and for the better, they couldn’t deal with the changes Lightfoot took on.

Their loss, I suppose, because grow he did. By 77 and 78, his music had started to take on a number of different directions simultaneously, some pop, some commentary, some blues, but always Lightfoot…. and always comfortable, like the Saturday clothes he once sang about. And there are times when that just feels right.

Backed by a number of the regulars, Red Shea, Terry Clements among them, this one is worth your time.

* After pointing to polls which, as with one voice, say the polled are against the firing of Imus, Billy concludes, understandably:

I think the networks are simply not paying attention to market reality on the street. They are afraid of something out there that doesn’t exist.

Well, certainly, popular support for the move isn’t there. But I’m not sure it can be said that they’re reacting to ghosts, however. Look, most people can’t stand Jackson, or Sharpton… Democrats…even most blacks, far as I can see. And yet, that lack doesn’t seem to lessen their power in the society. Since when have leftists ever needed a majority to hold sway in society?
OTOH, look at this from the perspective of the owners; Imus has NEVER drawn huge ratings, even in the Musicradio/W*N*bc days, in comparison to the amounts of money invested. The talk show has been more expensive yet. The issue from the perspective of the networks was is and always shall be, the bottom line.

The people that reacted to what really wasn’t there was the ADVERTISERS. Advertisers will be more prone to reacting so to a small vocal minority. (No pun intended).

Remember, too, that the Jacksons and the Sharptons of the world have a rather long track record of shaking down major corporations…. advertisers.. to get their way… including their massive funding. I guarantee you that’s what drove all this.

Mind you, I’m not overly happy about it; I can think of an awful lot of reasons to be blowing him out the door.  But because I was being blackmailed (No pun intended) by Jackson and Sharpton, and their ilk, would not be first on my list.

As to why the gruesome twosome would be flexing their muscles just now; I wonder how many people it’s occurred to, that we’re on the cusp of a presidential election season?  I suspect and suppose that now that the baby has a cookie, and a pat on the head, he’s now going to want some milk, too.

* Reader “Paul” says:

Take 60 seconds to do this, I guarantee you will show someone else, it’s too funny not to.

1. go to www.google.com/
2. click on “maps”
3. click on “get directions”
4. type ” New York ” in the first box (the “from” box)
5. type ” London ” in the second box (the “to” box)
(hit get directions)
6. scroll down to step #23

Ummmm… Yeah. Have a nice trip. Make sure you install new wipers before you leave, OK?

* A number of people have made comments about Jon Corzine riding around in an SUV as opposed to the thimbles we’re all supposed to be driving now. there’s a lot of merit, in what’s being said.  However, I’m willing to sit back and wait until yet some of the hospital and start spouting off again.  Something he would not be capable of doing, if he had been driving something smaller.  You know, if the nanny state is so interested in keeping us “safe” , why is it that they insist on us riding around in little boxes made of tin foil?  I’ll keep BitsBox, thanks.
* We’re supposed to be getting another winter storm, Saturday night. Gee, just what I wanted. They’ve got storm watches up for our entire neighborhood, essentially everything north and east of Pittsburgh. personally, as I did look at the maps, however, unless the system that were sitting under right now is an awful lot weaker than it looks, I suspect that the whole thing is going to pass to our southeast… clobber Binghamton..(Sorry Billy) and maybe up to Syracuse and then on a track northeast from there.
* The trailer’s ready to go, the RV place tells me. Good. Now all I have to do is wait for the snow to melt. Meanwhile, I’m shivering. Oh, well. At least I’ve got the playoffs… game two, at Buffalo, tomorrow.

The Raleigh News and Observer has a profile of Crystal Gail Mangum,   The closing:

Then in 2002 came a night of bizarre behavior that would be repeated in the coming years, including at the lacrosse party. That night in 2002, she appeared coherent one moment and falling-down intoxicated the next. She had been performing at a Durham strip club late on a Thursday night, and while fondling a customer who was a taxi driver she slipped his keys out of his pocket, according to a Durham County Sheriff’s Office report.

Ms Mangum is a sick person.  I can only hope that she  receives the medical treatment she so badly needs.  That Mike Nifong allowed Ms. Mangum to use the Duke lacross team as therapy is regretable on the part of Mr. Nifong.

(H/T Betsy Newmark, Betsy’s Page)

Maybe Terry Moran should get someone to plagiarize his blog items, the way Katie Couric did. They’d be a whole lot better

John Podhoretz, NRO – Corner.

It a pretty nasty comment, John Podhoretz made, but Terrry Moran wrote a pretty nasty column about Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, while still protecting the accuser, stripper, liar Cystal Gail Mangum.

BTW, kudos to Podhoretz for putting Mangum’s name in print in the MSM,

Who’d have thunk.  After awarding a BB  to Sheppard Smith, I am now lauding Alan Colmes, who kindly, persisently but very effectively renders Elisabeth Hasselbeck blond, video.   I thnk Elisabeth is sending too much time in the lower minor leagues,  the View, and is just not ready for prime time.  Alas.

A world, or at least a community, without males.  Steve Connor, Independent(UK) reports:

Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.

Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.

Go for it girls!

I’d like to see a prototype all female community.  The cows have long clamored that they don’t need men.  Let them now demonstrate it.  Is Gillian’s Isle available?

(H/T:  Sister Toldjah)

Surber, last night:

I’ve said for some time that Michelle Malkin should have her own TV show. Her “Hot Air” vents are good training. (The site is liveblogging her show.)

Filling in for Bill O’Reilly tonight, she proved her mettle.

She interviewed the head of that Black Panther Party clan down in Durham, N.C., that tried to railroad those Duke lacrosse players. Malkin was firm, polite and asked some tough questions.

Here, have some crow, Black Panther dude.

That led to a wonderfully entertaining moment on TV. The guy could not take being pushed around by a woman.

He called her a prostitute.

Which, as I gather it, is the literal translation of “Ho”. But he’s a black liberal, and so that’s OK, I guess. Right?

(Don has vid, as does the Gateway Pundit)

Almost makes me sorry I was busy watching the Buffalo Sabres beat up on the Islanders. Michelle commented after the show:

One Opio Socconi informs us it’s all the Founding Fathers’ fault that hip-hop “artists” treat women like meat and can’t finish expressing a thought without throwing in three “niggas” in every sentence. Yep, blame George Washington for R. Kelly and Young Jeezy.

That, to my mind, is exactly the point of the exchange. Offer what negatives you will about Don Imus.  I will likely agree, as people have been reading here for the last couple of days will know.  But explain to me the difference between this moron Michelle was interviewing last night, and what Imus said the other morning.

I’ll wait.
(Tap, tap, tap)

The answer is, there is no difference.  Except of course, that Imus is not black, and therefore doesn’t get a pass on things he says.

The funny part about all of this, is that this is the left wing ripping itself up.

You can almost sense it, listening to the water cooler conversation.  The usual leftist suspects, are totally confused.  How could this happen?  These are people that Imus has been trying to snuggle up to for a couple decades now.  Recall please, that he rather publicly voted for John Kerry.  He’s been busy giving credibility to people like Sharpton, and Jackson, on the show, for years.  The left has been busy kissing backside of people like this Malik Shabazz moron(Real name… Paris Lewis) that Michelle was interviewing last night, for decades.  The reason being, they bring votes to the democratic party, and therefore must be entertained, or so the theory went.
Well, leftists, I’ve got news for you: YOU helped create this monster, gave it creds.That monster, proceeded to tear, down this past week, one of the best spokesmen the left wing ever had.

You are forever associated with this kind of radical.  This kind of radical, is the democratic party today.  You made the bed.  Now lie in it.  Nighty Night.

Afterthought:

Oh, by the way: Here’s a transcript from October of ’05 from an interview between Orielly and the same moron as Michelle interviewed. And look at the list of people he claims as supporters… and I have no reason to doubt such claims:

….ranging from Russell Simmons to Harry Belafonte, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Susan Taylor, to Louis Farrakhan, Conrad Worrill…

His claim back then? Check this:

.. And we are filing — the Millions More movement is going to file a class action lawsuit against Homeland Security and FEMA and calling for an international investigation into what happened to the levees as well a congressional investigation.

So we laid out a plan for self-government at this march.

O’REILLY: Based on what? Based on what evidence that you would file a lawsuit which will be thrown out and I’ll bet you $1,000 on that…

SHABAZZ: Based on the fact that every death and injury in New Orleans can be attributed to the negligence of the state government as well as FEMA and…

O’REILLY: What evidence do you have that somebody blew up the levees, Malik? What evidence do you have that somebody blew up the levees? Give me one piece of evidence.

SHABAZZ: Well, first of all, I said that the lawsuit was based on negligence and there is other evidence. As the levees were blown up in ’65, Hurricane Camille, 1927 in New Orleans, we’re just asking for a congressional investigation.

Like what you see, America?

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH; THIS IS THE FACE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TODAY.

CBS has fired Don Imus.

NEW YORK -(AP) CBS fired Don Imus from his radio program Thursday, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation’s most prominent broadcasters.

Blood in the water.

Anyone needing a full-on example of a double standard needs look no further than John Gibson’s commentary yesterday…. here’s a bit of the point:

What goes a lot farther are the rappers who think this is language that is OK for them to use, but not OK for anyone else to use, anyone such as an old white man like Don Imus.

Take the bad boy rapper Snoop Dogg. He issued a statement through MTV today and was stunning in its blunt candor and in its near total lack of concern about the problems that result from promulgating this language. The mighty Snoop said:

“It’s a completely different scenario. [Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We’re talking about hos that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing (bleep), that’s trying to get a (bleep) for his money. These are two separate things.”

So Snoop’s position is that he is an expert on who is a ho and who is not, and therefore he is licensed to label hos and others are not. He said:

“First of all, we ain’t no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them (bleepers) say we in the same league as him.”

So we can now assume that there is a higher form of calling someone a ho and a lower form of calling someone a ho. And when we hear Snoop call a woman that name then we can take it to the bank that she is, and it’s OK that she is called that.

I don’t think I can better that one.

If reference to Don Imus in particular and freedom of speech in general, Al Sharpton said:

“It is our feeling that this is only the beginning,” the Reverend Al Sharpton said. “This must be a walk that CBS now does.”

Who we pale face? You got a mouse in your pocket?  It is long past time for Sharpton to be demanding apologies and time for  him to start delivering them.

Source, WTEN, News 10, Albany, NY