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William Jefferson’s re-election in Lousiana run-off has complicated life for Mrs. Pelosi.   Having campaigned on a promise to drain the republican swamp, Mrs.. Pelosi finds herself surrounded by democrat allegators.

For The Hill, Alexander Bolton, reports “CBC wants Jefferson’s seat restored:”

The Congressional Black Caucus is planning to press Democratic leaders to reinstate Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) to the Ways and Means Committee, raising the thorny question of how leaders will handle the fate of Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), who has also come under ethical scrutiny.

Mrs. Pelosi talked about draining the swamp.   Was it mere campaign rhetoric?. 

Recently, via e-mail, I got a note from a new reader. He wondered, in quiet tones, what the future of this site will be, given the political outcome in the election just recently.

I have to admit I haven’t thought about it very much.

Look, let’s be honest; My whole effort, surrounding this new site, was getting it up and running and looking reasonably well. And working well. Loading quickly, and whatnot. The technical, nuts and bolts things. The idea that the political world around it, would influence my actions, my ‘style’ if you will, never really entered into my head. I won’t speak for a DavidL and Fersboo, but I suspect, that it hasn’t entered theirs, either. (note the use of the word)
But I had to sit and think about the question, because it’s a good one; How will the reality enforced by the most recent election affect this site?

I guess my immediate response, is that I .. make that WE… will have far more to write about, and the actual chore of writing, will be far easier.

I found, during the Clinton years, that both my short posts, and my extended ones, tended to write themselves as much as anything. The simple, bare- knuckle facts, were all I needed to write.

Since we are now back in a situation of the Republicans being out of power, and the Democrats being in, examples are rather simple to find. You need look no further than the articles I posted just tonight; “Don’t say we didn’t warn you”, and “Don’t say we didn’t warn you, part two” . As a matter of fact, every post we’ve put up today, both David and myself, are part and parcel of what this blog is about, and what it will be about for the foreseeable future. The reasons are easy enough; because it’s being read. It’s being read, because it’s what the mainstream media does not dare to touch.

If anything, the quality of the writing here, will increase by leaps and bounds, as we get used to our new environment here on this new site, and as the Democrats continue to fall victim to their own greed and malfeasance. That stuff, as I say, tends to write itself.
Let’s make sure you understand me, here. The fact is that Democrats will be out of power in another two years. I will celebrate on that day. But, I will celebrate not because I hold any serious truck with the Republicans , per se’. Rather, because I see the republicans are at this stage being the best weapon available against the Democrats. That’s the political angle on this blog.

But of course, there is more… and the “more”, is what I have tried to inject in these “Nightly Rambles” that I’ve been posting. Stuff that most assuredly does not write itself.

Take last night’s “ramble” as an example. I will tell you the truth; I doubt that six months ago I’d have posted that. But today, it is in keeping with the concept that I am trying to get across, here. To understand the concept, you have to take a step back a little bit.

The nightly ramble, as a concept, is as follows :

I’m spending perhaps a half an hour to 40 minutes or so on a nightly basis, looking around at the world, and looking around it, and frankly looking at my life, too…. And jotting down what I think of it. Perhaps I’ll throw in a couple of pictures, perhaps I will even throw in a political snipe or two, but I can guarantee you this; if I post something in a nightly ramble, it is strictly me shooting from the hip. Up front, and personal. Sometimes bland, sometimes in your face. Sometimes with inaccurate comments.  But there it is.

That’s unusual for a political blog, that concept. It’s unusual, because those comments are made to fit within the context of life. You see, I’ve been feeling for a long time that one’s politics, by definition, is merely a reflection of one’s deeper held beliefs about things like life, morality, and all the many things that spring up from those. That’s a feeling I’ve related here on a couple of occasions. But I don’t think I’ve ever really quantified it. Somehow, I doubt I will. But I think it’s a quality that a lot of the political punditry, particularly in the ‘sphere, have lost sight of.

I’m finding writing within the stated concept a little challenging at times. Not so much from the commitment of time… (when you’re running a site like this, best to figure on the time commitment. Anyone running a site… particularly one updated daily, will tell you that.) The challenge as it turns out is actually having something to say. Much the same as Michelangelo’s statues, it’s already in there, waiting to come out. That trick, unlike the short-shot political comments… and even the deeper analysis that we’ve been generating at my site for years now… is getting it to come out. (No pun intended, Andrew)
Feedback, of course, is welcome, because it’s a foregone conclusion that I won’t always be successful in getting it to come out correctly, or at all. In fact, feedback is vital to this effort. If I’m not connecting with you, I need to know it. Or if I am connecting with you I need to know that, too.
Well, I hope that answers the question of my e-mailer. now that I’ve bored you all to tears, let’s go about the remainder of the ramble, shall we?

-=-

I promised last night that I post some Christmas pictures of the neighborhood. Of course, I said that before I actually looked at them. I’ve forgotten one of the frailties of this particular camera, a Cannon Powershot 95, it needs a very steady hand when shooting things like fireworks, or Christmas lights. Any dark shot blurs very quickly. Apparently, the exposure time automatically goes up as the scene gets darker. Said, because they would have made some really beautiful shots, too. Part of the problem, is the idea that the screen on the camera is so small I can see whether not it’s actually blurry in the shop, or it’s my eyes. One of the foibles of age, I suppose.

Sorry, I’ll try again.

-=-

Its supposed to be sunny around here tomorrow and 50°. On December the twelfth.

Unbelievable. Those sun spots are really raising hell with the winter around here. At least the amateur radio folks are having fun with the sky wave. The bands have to be wide open on some of these evenings.

-=-

I’m in the process of listening to the collected works of Tony Joe White.

Turns out he’s got something like twenty albums out there, which is eighteen more than I thought he did. Decent blues, but in addition, and perhaps more importantly, some of the tastiest guitar playing you’ll ever hear your life. To give you a picture, perhaps you’re familiar with Brook Benton’s recording of “Rainy night in Georgia” . First of all, that’s one of White’s tunes. Cornell Dupree… one of the finest session men in America at the time.. did the guitar work on that cut. His playing there is probably a good example of that kind of guitar playing that White does as a matter of routine. Clearly, Dupree was inspired by the demo track.

I’ll name some favorite tracks tomorrow night.

-=-

Enough. I’ve got a long day tomorrow.

WASHINGTON — The sterile, confused lame-duck session of the Republican-controlled 109th Congress ended with a quiet victory by reformers that staved off an estimated 10,000 earmarks. But it could not be called a farewell to pork. Last Thursday, as the House neared adjournment, Democrats signaled they may countenance a return to free and easy spending ways when they assume the majority Jan. 4.

So says Robert Novak over at Real Clear Politics.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is precisely the outcome I predicted, when some among us were talking about “giving one house to the democrats” in an effort to control spending.  That’s like giving the keys to your Jaguar to your sixteen year old in hopes it will improve the chances of his driving within the speed limit.

I hate to say this again, but just like the last post, Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Welcome to government with the Democrats in power.

Now that Democrats are back in power the politics of fear and envy is back in vogue.

It’s hard to open a newspaper or watch the news without hearing about the “income gap” or the “wealth gap.”

CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, well dressed and well fed (Lou certainly is up in that one percent of the population earning 20 percent of the income), goes on and on, night after night, about the “War on the Middle Class.”

Whose war, Lou? Who’s running it? Exactly who is it that is attacking our middle class? Is it those folks who, instead of sitting on the couch and listening to Lou, are actually working and taking responsibility for their lives?

That’s Star Parker. She’s had a home run with this one.  The democrats, having no other ideas to run on , go directly back to their socialist roots.  And of course, like true socialists.  In the Soviet cents, there seems to be an awful lot a cash flowing around amongst the people who were supposedly “fighting for the little people.  “

Fear and envy create wealth for politicians who use these levers, as Democrats want to do now, to activate and grow government as a pretense for solving problems that people can only solve for themselves.

Ain’t it real.

Welcome to government with the Democrats in power.

Newsmax;

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is polishing up one of her more famous phrases as she edges closer to a presidential run, writing in a new introduction to her book “It Takes a Village” that Sept. 11 and the Internet make her tome on child-rearing even more relevant today.

“The five years since 9/11 have reinforced one of my main points: How children are raised anywhere can impact our lives and our children’s futures,” Clinton writes in the introduction to the 10th anniversary edition of the book, which goes on sale Dec. 12. An early copy was obtained by the Associated Press.

I suppose there to be no better proof that this woman is going for the White House than this move.  Ironically, it’s not her best selling point.

“Today’s electronic village has certainly complicated the always difficult challenge of parenting and raising the next generation,” Clinton writes, noting that in 1996 few were on the Internet and cell phones “weighed as much as bricks.”

Of course, she doesn’t make mention of the fact that she and her kind of make it more difficult yet, by insisting that government can do it all for them. 

(Fox) Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to offer a blistering criticism of the Bush administration’s foreign policy in a farewell speech Monday to a crowd in Independence, Mo.

A copy of the speech originally obtained by USA Today and confirmed by FOX News, shows Annan is expected to accuse the U.S. administration of committing human rights abuses in the name of fighting terrorism, and of taking military action without broad international support.

Click here to view the USA Today article.

Heh…Talk about projection.

I say the President has done more against terror than the UN has. Matter of fact, perhaps Kofi can inform us as to what he’s done to that end. What has the UN EVER done? And by the way, Kofi, in case you’ve forgotten this, or didn’t know it, the whole of the UN security council approved of the President’s ‘Bullying’.  Since what the President is doing was approved and worked far better than anything the UN has EVER done, your claims now sound rather like sour grapes.

Or is all this over the Oil for Food thing?

In a perverse illlustration of Jimmy Carter’s moral sense, or lack of same, the Associated Press reports,  “Gaza gunmen target children:”

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian gunmen killed three young children of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer yesterday.

Now these are the same Palestinian to which Carter attributres absolute moral authority.   Yet Carter will remain silent as to the murder of children.   Carter’s silence speak volumes as to his character.

James Joyner this morning, notes that Glenn Greenwald has finally got the message:

Rahm Emanuel Lied About Mark Foley Scandal

Glenn Greenwald examines the evidence and finds that Rahm Emanuel lied when he told George Stephanoupolous that he was not aware of the Mark Foley emails before they ABC News’ Brian Ross broke the story, making him “guilty of exactly what he was accusing the GOP House Leadership of. And his hypocritical, pious lectures about the ‘warning signs’ which GOP Leaders had were dishonest at their core.” That’s exactly right, although he’s also right that this does not mitigate the malfeasance on part of Hastert and company.

As I told James, several days ago, however; there’s one major reason that the democrats didn’t blow the whistle on Foley, in spite of knowing what was going on:

The answer can only be that their method of obtaining said documents, would be discovered. If I recall correctly, there was an awful lot in the way of document leakage from one side of the house to the other this last time around. It was said, that this was one of the reasons that the republicans were less effective than they might have been.

In short, they got the goods on Foley, by illicit means… Means they didn’t want to lose the advantage of. In short, their political advantage, was worth more to them than ‘saving the children’.

Welcome to the world with the Democrats in power.

The Warblogger awards, which are the oldest and most prestigious
awards for the right side of the blogosphere, are now live.

You can see the results 5th annual Warblogger awards, which are voted
on by right-of-center bloggers, at the following address:

Right Wing News

Winners in these 15 categories were selected:

The Funniest Blog
Best Designed Blog
Most Missed (The best blog that’s out of business now)
Best Original Reporting By A Blog
Best Blog Round-Up Site (Best website/blog to go to see the top/most
interesting stories in the blogosphere for the day)
Favorite Columnist Who’s Not A Blogger
Least Liked Columnist Who’s Not A Blogger
Favorite Political Website That’s Not A Blog
Favorite Left-Of-Center Blogger
Most Annoying Left-Of-Center Blogger
Most Annoying Right-Of-Center Blogger
Most Overrated Blog
Best Linker
The Best Original Content For A Blog
The Best Blog Overall

My only objection;

At some point  the message is going to come through the Andrew Sullivan is not a right wing blogger…  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  Nor is he a centerist. As such, eventually, they’ll stop giving him votes in those categories.

(Edit:  DavidL)

This is not going to be a happy read, tonight.

Oh, don’t worry, I’m not in a foul mood… more thoughtful, than anything…

“Don’t wish your time away… after enough of it goes by, you’ll wish you had it back again.”

Such was the advice from my mother back at age sixteen. At around three times that age, I’m only starting to get a handle on what she was talking about.

To be honest, I have always found myself wishing for some event to happen. And waiting for it. Anxiously. And then, finding myself disappointed when the event finally shows up. It never seems to make it to the level of the billing that my anxious waiting, gave it.

Weekends, mostly, seem to be what we’re waiting for.

We spend a lot of our waking lives, basically skipping from weekend to weekend. Basically, what we’re doing, is erasing 5/7 of our life in the doing. Oh, we are faithful enough in our work. In our schooling… whatever weekday efforts that our obligations put us to.

Lately, though, I have begun to wonder , just what we miss by living our lives in this fashion. And, frankly, Mom’s right. I’m beginning to wish I had that time back again.

We all know someone who is not living up to the potential that we perceive them to have. We can think of this person in our minds without any hesitation. Well, think again. Because, you see, we, all of us, are not living up to our potential. There is always something in our lives that could have taken us a lot farther, had we taken the time and applied that needed energy to it. Dr. Stephen Hawking. There’s a person who you would think almost automatically, that their potential would be extraordinarily limited. And certainly, there were a number of things the good doctor could not do. He certainly has no capacity for the role of a sports hero. a fireman. A policeman. Soldier. Spaceman. And isn’t that ironic… a man who holds such understandings of space in his head, will never visit space because of his limitations?

Yet, in spite of those limits… who among us, could achieve what he has? If nothing else, he single-handedly has redefined what we see as human potential. More correctly, by simply applying the potential he has, he redefined the boundaries of disability. If he can achieve what he did , despite the disabilities thrown his way, how can we be less capable? I’ll tell you; He made the use of his time to the greatest effect… that’s what was maximizing his potential.

What we see as our own potential, for most of us, is far less than what he is already achieved. And yet, look at the man. Consider the childhood he had. If it can be called that. And who would’ve given him a chance of coming anywhere near to where he did?

I don’t know what, other than the vision of the old gink in the mirror, brought this on. Call it a midlife crisis, if you will, but I suppose, that it’s the final realization, that I have not, nor will I, achieve to the potential that I contain, and I find it cold comfort that most of us won’t. Colder still, is the idea that the reason we won’t achieve to our potential, is because we allow ourselves to become diverted from it. We CHOSE the lesser path, because it’s EASIER. I think that I can guarantee that those who achieved to their potential, aren’t living just from weekend to weekend.

I make no judgments in all of this. We all do it. But I can’t help but wonder, what might have been, already.

-=-

Warmer around here tonight; around 40 or so. It’s supposed to be warm most of this week.

-=-

We did some running around tonight, on the idea of getting some Christmas light snapshots to post… and I’ll put them up in the next day or two. Doesn’t play as well, though, without the snow to set them off a bit.

-=-

SANTIAGO, Chile -AP- Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Chile’s democratically elected Marxist president in a bloody coup and ruled this Andean nation for 17 years, died today, dashing hopes of victims of his regime’s abuses that he would be brought to justice. He was 91.

Pinochet suffered a heart attack a week ago and underwent an angioplasty, and the brief announcement by the Santiago Military hospital said his condition worsened suddenly on Sunday. Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, spokesman for the medical team that had been treating him, said his family was with him when he died.

The second sadist part of this, is he never faced, at least while on this earth, justice for his crimes.  The truly sadist part of this, is that he still had supporters both in his own country, and sadder still, in this one.

Let’s see if Jimmy Carter shows up to the funeral, for example.

And just a passing thought; Is there a connection that we can put our finger on that ties continuing support for  Pinochet, and for, say , Bill Clinton… or more recently, a  Rep. William Jefferson,  as another example? What causes leftists to continue to support proven criminals?

The poltically sensitive preach that it somehow wrong to be judgemental.  To which  Is say – bull!  A civilizied man must be judgemental, openly and proudly.

The politically sensitive preach that all cultures are somehow equal.  That we should accept other cultures and shun passing value judgements.   Consider this story from the The Australisn, “India killing off girl babies:”

INDIA’S female population is in steady decline, with parents continuing to kill off their baby girls before or just after birth, a report has found.

Described as “the shame of modern India” – particularly at a time of booming economic growth and increasing literacy – the decline is attributed to misuse of prenatal diagnostic techniques and a consequent increase in cases of female feticide.

Does it bother you that human beings are being killed simply by virtue of the fact they are female?  If so, welcome the world of the poltically incorrect.

Steyn is in rare form this morning:

So there you have it: an Iraq “Support Group” that brings together the Arab League, the European Union, Iran, Russia, China and the U.N. And with support like that who needs lack of support? It worked in Darfur, where the international community reached unanimous agreement on the urgent need to rent a zeppelin to fly over the beleaguered region trailing a big banner emblazoned “YOU’RE SCREWED.” For Dar4.1, they can just divert it to Baghdad.

Oh, but lest you think there are no minimum admission criteria to James Baker’s “Support Group,” relax, it’s a very restricted membership: Arabs, Persians, Chinese commies, French obstructionists, Russian assassination squads. But no Jews. Even though Israel is the only country to be required to make specific concessions — return the Golan Heights, etc. Indeed, insofar as this document has any novelty value, it’s in the Frankenstein-meets-the-Wolfman sense of a boffo convergence of hit franchises: a Vietnam bug-out, but with the Jews as the designated fall guys. Wow. That’s what Hollywood would call “high concept.”

Why would anyone — even a short-sighted incompetent political fixer whose brilliant advice includes telling the first Bush that no one would care if he abandoned the “Read my lips” pledge — why would even he think it a smart move to mortgage Iraq’s future to anything as intractable as the Palestinian “right of return”? And, incidentally, how did that phrase — “the right of return” — get so carelessly inserted into a document signed by two former secretaries of state, two former senators, a former attorney general, Supreme Court judge, defense secretary, congressman, etc. These are by far the most prominent Americans ever to legitimize a concept whose very purpose is to render any Zionist entity impossible. I’m not one of those who assumes that just because much of James Baker’s post-government career has been so lavishly endowed by the Saudis that he must necessarily be a wholly owned subsidiary of King Abdullah, but it’s striking how this document frames all the issues within the pathologies of the enemy.

…

Which is the superpower and which is the third-rate basket-case state? From the Middle Eastern and European press coverage of the Baker group, it’s kinda hard to tell.

I can’t help but feel, that his indignation is righteous, and justified, if a little delayed.  Go and read the rest of it, it’s worth it.  If for no other reason, then to confirm what we’ve been writing here in BitsBlog, literally, for many moons.

I do have one disagreement…Steyn labels the ISG “Inane Strategy Guesswork”…I confess that I chuckle a little on reading that.  But it doesn’t fit.

Let’s be clear about this: This is not guesswork .  This document is directly in line with what our enemy wants.  It’s called “surrender”.  And I for one, cannot believe for a moment that the people who created it… no dummies, they…. did so blindly.  I have to believe this is a willing surrender.  It represents the worst possible thing that America could do it this point. Can I make this any clearer for you?

NOLA.COM- Confounding political pundits and a slew of rivals who had become confident of his defeat, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, neatly sidestepped a roiling federal corruption probe to win re-election on Saturday to his ninth term in Congress.  Guilty pleas by aides and associates who admitted to bribing the congressman and the revelation in court documents that FBI agents had found $90,000 in marked bills stuffed into Jefferson’s freezer had put the scent of blood in political waters.

We are forced by logic to assume that the people of New Orleans support criminality. Welcome to the Democratic party.