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Nightly Ramble: Goin’ Mobile Edition

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Welcome to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… em>The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the “Goin’ Mobile” edition.

Yes, that pic is taken outside the Jake in Cleveland, just before a wind gust knocked it over, wiping out the sidewalk Hot Dog cart parked behind it.  It was quickly set back on it’s wheels by three 12 year olds hopped up on cotton candy and Mountain Dew. Later that same day, the sign was given the “Best looking sign on a truck” award by three bums and a street-walker polled by your intrepid blogger.  Amazing what $1.42 in loose change will buy you. (The lawsuits against this blogger by the hot dog vendor are still pending.)

  • Salesmanship: By way of Bruce [2], I note Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen of Politico [3]remarking:

    Of all the pitfalls Barack Obama might face in the presidency, here is one not many people predicted: He is struggling as a public communicator.

    As I remark to Bruce, [2] you’re only as good as your material. The best communicator in the world won’t be able to sell what Obama’s policies offer.That’s why W, who is unquestionably less proficient verbally, had an easier time of getting his points across and then Obama does now ; people just aren’t buying what Obama is selling. 20 years ago, yeah… possibly he’d have been more effective. As it is, we’ve seen these tricks before… and rejected them.

  • One of our newspeoeple is missing: If you haven’t heard about George Webber (77/WABC)  being murdered, [4] you may want to stop over at Scott Fybush’s place and catch up.
  • Government now to control all pay? Jason Pye notes the move from the White House to cap ALL CEO pay [5]. I note the story being tracked also, in The International Hearld Tribune.

    WASHINGTON: The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said.The outlines of the plan are expected to be unveiled this week in preparation for President Barack Obama’s first foreign summit meeting in early April.

    Increasing oversight of executive pay has been under consideration for some time, but the decision was made in recent days as public fury over bonuses has spilled into the regulatory effort.

    Here we are. The Marxian claim that your money isn’t yours, but the government’s to use as they see fit. All in the name of ‘fairness’. Of course, they are the ones who get to decide what is fair. So, in this case as in all others since BO almost got sworn in, we see the Democrats using a crisis of ther making to further socialist aims.  Don’t tell me that this wasn’t on the agenda all along, people. It’s now down to a question of us letting them get away with it.

  • The real cause: Speaking of getting away with it, Darrel Issa  has a report out [6]you should see, linking Countrywide Financial’s treatment of Democratic pols and their reluctance to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Here is the locus of the blamefor our finacial conditon, folks. For all the redirection of blame and anger about all this, the fact remains none of it would have been a problem without the government’s involvement in the housing markets, and the corruption Democrats brought to the party. Gee, I can’t imagine why the Democrats would want to duck the blame on this one, can you?
  •  Almost Justice: Jim Corzine is in trouble [7]

    Clearly, Corzine is in trouble. And he’s starting to act like he knows it. Three years of people complaining about high taxes, the need to rein in unions and his failure to do enough on ethics reform didn’t get through to him. The prospect of losing his re-election bid might.

    Maybe, maybe not.  Thing is the problems you see listed in the article, are not unlike the problems we see with the Democrats in Washington. And the outcome there, I suppose, wil be the same. But the real reason Corzine is in trouble? He’s got Republicans out there RUNNING as Republicans… and not hiding their conservatism behind a ‘go along to get along’ mask. 

  • Numbers, we’ve got numbers: That trend we see in the Corzine thing, is getting fairly well universal, and doesn’t bode well for Democrats.  Comes Charlie Cook [8]to add to the bonfire:

    Republicans have pulled even with Democrats on the generic congressional ballot test, according to a survey by a respected pair of firms.In the new National Public Radio poll conducted by the Democratic polling company Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and its Republican counterpart, Public Opinion Strategies, 42 percent of the 800 likely voters surveyed March 10 to 14 said that if the next congressional election were held today they would vote for the Republican candidate; an identical percentage of respondents said they would vote for the Democratic one. For several years, Democrats held a substantial lead on this question.

    Democrats still outnumbered Republicans in terms of party identification in this poll by 6 points, 45 percent to 39 percent. Democrats also favored their own party’s congressional candidates 83 percent to 7 percent. But voters who call themselves independents gave GOP candidates the edge by 14 points, 38 percent to 24 percent. And self-identified Republicans supported their own party’s candidates 85 percent to 3 percent.

    I’d say, that at least part of these numbers are a product of the samplers, and the sampled, particularly in the case of the NPR polling.  I’ll say further, that this shift is incidental to the overt attacks on Limbaugh. Perhaps Limbaugh being the face of the GOP was more of a nightmare for the Democrats than they knew.  Again, the key is overt conservatism. Conservatives… real conservatives, have afar more support than Democrats ever did… and if the Republican party wants to get going again, they’ll best do it by embracing conservatism.

  • The Diosaurs, meanwhile, should resign over Obama’s failure, says Roger Simon [9] over at Pajamas Media. I can’t say I disagree. Roger dares use the phrase “manchurian candidate”. Funny he should do that. I’ve got an article coming online over there in the next day or so that looks at this.
  • Four cops dead: Sorry to see this bit in Oakland [10]. Maybe it’s time to, you know, start training these guys a little better. The recent history of this PD [11]  and others in the Oakland area such as the Transit cops, would seem to confirm this on all points. Look; One guy taking out two uniforms, I can understand. But two SWAT guys as well? Sorry, I don’t buy that something wasn’t totally screwed up there.  My take is it falls directly in the lap of one Ron “Red” Dellums, the Mayor of that besotted berg. And yes, take my word, the second swat guy is dead also. We have another Natasha Richardson on our hands. Same conditions apply, sadly.
  • Bye, Natasha: Speaking of Richardson, they had her funeral over the weekend [12].  I’m with David on this one; the charges that the canadians muffed her resue and her healthcare work is likley false. No, I’m not sauing they didn’t screw up… they did.  I just doubt that in the end it made much difference. Still, I can’t fault people for asking the questions. Has anyone noticed, though, that in the face of that incident, we’ve not heard Jack about government healthcare of late from the Obama administration?  Almost like they know this thing’s going to be exemplary in the national debate on the idea of government run healthcare.
  • Suicide: There’s gotta be something genetic, here. [13]
  • Driving a thimble apparently isn’t all that popular: You know those small ‘cars’ the government keeps trying to get the car companies to make… the ones we’re told would sell if the car companies would just make them?  They’re not selling. The WSJ [14]:

    Practically every small car in the market is stacked up at dealerships. At the end of February, Honda Motor Co. had 22,191 Fits on dealer lots — enough to last 125 days at the current sales rate, according to Autodata Corp. In July, it had a nine-day supply, while the industry generally considers a 55- to 60-day supply healthy.For other models the supply situation is even worse. Toyota Motor Corp. has enough Yaris subcompacts to last 175 days. Chrysler LLC has a 205-day supply of the Dodge Caliber. And Chevrolet dealers have 427 days’ worth of Aveo subcompacts. At the current sales rate, General Motors Corp. could stop making the Aveo and it wouldn’t run out until May 24, 2010.

    “I don’t think Americans really like small cars,” said Beau Boeckmann, whose family’s Galpin Ford in southern California is the country’s largest Ford dealer. “They drive them when they think they have to, when gas prices are high. But we’re big people and we like big cars.”

    Gee…. ya think? Quick; Someone tell Obama and his greenie minions. The government has car makers closing factories and retooling the ones left to make cars nobody will buy. Does that sound to you like that’ll help the economy?

  • They’re called Toxic for a reason: So after being leaked all weekend, the WSJ puts up an op-ed bylined to Tim Geithner, trying to sell the toxic asset plan. As I’ve said before this isn’t going to sell… any better than small cars are selling. After being told how evil the rich are since the day Obama came on the horizon, we’re now expected to think that these same ‘evil’ rich are going to buy into this toxic asset nonsense simply to win favor from Obama?  Trust me, folks, this good cop bad cop routine isn’t working. Oh, and yes, I did notice Obama trying to re-label toxic assets to something more sellable. Rather reminds one of a Monty Python skit [15]. ‘Course, about everything these morons do, does that, anymore.
  • Chinese Rubber: So, if the Stimulus is all about helping American industry, how is it we’re buying Chinese [16]?
  • OOoooohhhh..  Tingles gets a contract extension. They deserve each other. [17]
  • I don’t much care for OReiliy, ither, but face it, Amanda [18]; Anything that isn’t in lockstep with your nrrow mind is ‘harrassment’. Get it outta the sunshine, all right?