[1]Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere. Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble.
- It is jolly well amazing to me that Obama should be resorting to the politics of fear [2] so quickly. There’s a simple reason that he is resorting to this tactic at this time; He’s losing. He’s about ready to lose the first big legislative push of his administration. Not a very impressive start. His approval ratings have been dropping markedly since his coronation inauguration, and not surprisingly, he;’s looking like he’s starting to feel the whole thing slip away from him. Less than three weeks into is administration, and already the stench of desperation is overpowering. Oh, hopey changitude.
- Charles Krauthammer adds his own comments, here. [3]
- Interestingly, even the congressional budget office is saying that TARP is a load of crap. [4] remember my friends that the congressional budget office is the group of people that always lean left, and yet whom the left will invariably tell us is “bipartisan”. Jerry Pournelle agrees: [5]
The tax cut provisions of the ‘stimulus bill’ seem aimed at solidifying party control: most of it is transfer payments to people who don’t now pay taxes. In the US 40% don’t pay federal taxes. If any large number of those are given money as transfer payments they will learn to rely on them. At which point they will be motivated to vote. And community organizers will see that they do vote.
And that is exactly what all this is about. Political payoffs, and reinforcing the long as position with the voters by using the voters own money. The tactics not unlike what we saw it with a recent Illinois governor, what?
- If you think the democrats are worried about the amount of waste piled on to this stimulus bill, think again. [6]
- The Mayor of Chicago is not interested at all in releasing the stimulus project list. [7]Almost like the was afraid there was going to be a reaction to what was on that list.
- With all this going on you can certainly understand why the Democrats would want to keep control over the news that makes it to the ears of the electorate. Glenn Reynolds makes note today [8] of Democrat Senator Debbie Stebenow. She’s spending an awful lot of time lately talking about radio “accountability” and leaning toward the fairness doctrine again. As it turns out she’s married to somebody who was an executive in Air America. Gee, I can’t imagine how that one got by the mainstream media, can you?
- If you think the Democrats are worried about the amount of waste piled on to this stimulus bill, think again. [6]
- Oil, as it turns out is below $40.00 a barrel [9] today. That said, you’re going to notice some increases that the pump. Reasons are simple enough; refineries are starting to retool for things other than gasoline, and for summer formulations. That reduces the amount of gasoline that can be produced, thus raising prices. Now, prices haven’t gone up all that much. Around here we’re a pinch under $2.00 a gallon. Still, after week upon week of downward trend, the slight uptick was interesting and certainly not in keeping with the price of crude continuing to drop.
- And what do you know? They’ve managed to find additional ballots in Minnesota. [10] Somehow, and we don’t know how yet, these ballots were missed before. Almost like someone hid them. I can’t imagine why.
- Martha Zoller at Pajamas Media has a great article [11]up today about Obama. she points out that the coverage and Obama as been getting his been overwhelmingly positive, and yet he still complains. I’ve said it before, I will say it again; what this shows me very clearly is someone who he is mostly motivated by his own ego. Someone who was so directly manipulates his own spectacle can hardly be otherwise.