Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.
This is the Motel edition.
- The Religion Of Peace: Soeren Kern reports [1] that guy who beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada was found ‘not criminally responsible’? I have been far less than impressed with what passes for justice in Canada for some time, now. This does naught but reinforce that perception. Ya know, I wonder if the guy who behaded his wife over here in the Buffalo Southtowns is watching this and thinking he should have gone to Canada…
- Population Shifts and what they bring with them: I’m hearing the HIV/AIDS rate in DC is up to around 3%. [2]Go ahead, and tell me this sudden rise has nothing to do with the recent shift of power inside the beltway. Tell me this has nothing to do with the sudden influx of Democrats in the last few months, that the locals are telling us about. Just another data blip to show us who it is we’re dealing with, I guess. Of course, watch the reaction these comments get. But before you spout, when government grows, so does the DC population. When government grows, so does the number of people who believe in, and work in, big government. Do the math and get back to me.
- 27 year old geriatrics: Oh, good God do I feel old… [3]
- Does he have a clue? So many have started to question if Obama really knows what he’s doing [4] that it’s become the hot topic on the sphere this week. Oh, I think he does. I suspect the issue is that we’re not willing to admit to ourselves what it is he’s doing, preferring instead to think he’s trying to solve our problems. I’m currently working on an article that explores those thoughts. It’ll likely go to Pajams Media sometime Thursday or Friday. For the meantime, though ponder that even his supporters [5]are asking questions.
- Gee, ya think?
Tea Part in Cincy over the weekend
— WASHINGTON — [6]The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obama’s agenda.
Heh. My guess? The word on the ever increasingly large and vocal Tea Parties [7], and the coverage they’re getting [8] is penetrating the mist that forever surrounds Foggy Bottom. The naysayers not withstanding, (Sorry, Neal, but what it is) [9] We ARE making a difference. And I’ll tell you what; If the GOP and the libertarians manage to come out in front of this lynch mob and orginize it into a parade, they’ll win bigtime in the next two cycles. If not, forget it. It’s over. They’re not going to do that my offerin up another centrist like McCain, or Bush. Real Conservatives, guys. It’s the only way forward.
- Time for the Bonus round: In fairness to Neal, though, he gets this one right [10], about the AIG Bonus nonsense:
Over the weekend, one of the big stories was these AIG bonuses. If you’ll remember, AIG has received three government bailouts totaling $180 billion. But yesterday, the company paid out $165 million in bonuses to employees. The fact that AIG had to pay millions in bonuses, considering its massive failings, has politicians irate. Politicians don’t get irate when millions of dollars are spent by government on blueberry research or lobster farms .. but let the private sector pay that type of money pursuant to a contract and all hell breaks loose. We’re certainly not at all shocked to find that one of the ticked-off politicians is none other than Barney Frank. He says that we need to figure out whether or not these bonuses are “legally recoverable.” Barney wants to know, “Who said and at what point, ‘We’re going to give these bonuses no matter what.’ And I do think it’s inappropriate for those people to stay in power at that company.”
Where in the constitution is any of this written, Barney? If rewarding failure [11]is objectionable, why is Barney Frank still in office? If it were not for the voters of his state rewarding failure, several times over, Frank would have been forced to move his DC homosexual prostitution ring [12]to a building off the Back Bay, somewhere, years ago. And as a parting shot, consider this; You’ve got an employee who managed to help the company turn a fair profit (According to Obama, just the other day) in spite of it all. Wouldn’t you say a performance bonus is called for?
Robert Reich [13] is screaming that the administration’s failure to stop this is a sign that “our democracy is seriously broken” . Well, no, Shortstop, it means that the Administration has been going into areas it was never supposed to in the first place. It also means that the administration is incompetent to the task it unconstitutionally set itself. Either way that gets argued the fault rests on Obama and the Democrat Congress. Who voted for the bill without jolly well reading it? Who decided taxpayer money needed to be spent? Who was it who told us we were in such a crisis? It was the Democrats, at all points. So, please, Democrats, spare us the faux outrage. It’s in your laps now. Don’t try to pass the blame to someone else. This one’s all yours. The fault is not capitalism, or private companies. It’s the fault of government by Democrats. AIG is acting like a business, and hard as you try there will be no criminal charges against them. The Democrat run administration and the Democrat run Congress, meanwhile acted well outside their Constitutional authority and demonstrably screwed it up. Who of the two acted outside their purview? The screaming we see from Obama and the leading Democrats in both houses on this issue is them tossing up a smoke screen and hoping nobody will notice. VDH has more [14]. So does Bruce McQuain [15].
- Yes, I’m watching Pakistan implode [16]. Given the current occupant of the White House, why should any of this be a shock? And yes, I mean that. Consider the balance act that we took with that hellhole for how many years? You tell ME… has there been any moves to keep the place afloat from this WH since Obama took over? And guess where the nukes in that country will end up, people? Change we can believe in?
- C-Man: Don Imus is reporting prostate cancer. Sad. Well, let’s wish him the best. But I wonder how long it’s going to take before we hear the usual suspcts crowing about how the chickens have come home to roost… and you KNOW it’ll happen.
- The numbers say: Rasmussen says [17]Obama’s approval ratings are down to their lowest point… a plus 4.
- Hey, Jonah: Damn right, it’s not a good thing [18]. But that’s simply the way of it when Democrats are in charge. The markets don’t react to business realities they react to government. Then Dmeocrats wonder why things get disconnected from business reality. They do it every stinking time.
- No Goal: Speaking of Jonah… go ahead and tell me again [19]how the US is responsible for the cycle of violence in Iraq.