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Welcome one and all to the very more popular, always talked about, never equaled most intense nightly read on the sphere… The Bitsblog Nightly Ramble.
This is the The “Well, blow me down” edition.
- Oops… I forgot: Turns out it was ‘Bring your behavioral problem to work‘ day. I got a reminder on arrival at work, this morning, of course.
- If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute: The weather around here is screwy. Snow flurries last night. Tomorrow, and the day after, they’re predicting 80 degrees. Welcome to my world.
- Harman: Oddly, David Frum confirms my read [2]of the Harman case. This smells a CYA operation of the first order. Harman’s an idiot, but one gets the decided impression someone’s using her as a scapegoat. We’re watching. So is Ed at HotAir [3], who has a different angle. I agree with Ed, here, but this still smells to me of projection.
- Touching: Ann Coulter’s mom died last week. I hadn’t heard about it, until I noticed she’d written an Obit for a column [4]. I’m not placing this in a separate RIP notice for a couple of reasons… For one thing, my mention isn’t so much about her Mom as what she posted about her passing. It’s a touching read. I wonder if any of the many moronic critics the woman has could get through it without questioning their convictions. Our sympathies to Ann and her brothers.
[5]I consume bandwidth, therefore, I am: I have watched the business with Time Warner’s proposed bandwidth cap [6](40gb/mo=$55) come, and watched it go, without much comment. I’ve always figured, why bother? After all, Free market principles are in force, here. Had they gone to the cap, I’d have been off cable to DSL or the Dish before the echo died. Having already set up a caching proxy server in the house, bandwidth and speed are seldom a real issue, despite Casa de Bit being a rather high-tech, high-bandwidth establishment. Apparently, though, they’ve decided not to go to the cap [7]. Of course, Chuckles Schumer tried to make out like it was all his doing. He, like many Democrats has developed the knack of leaping out in front of a lynch mob and making out like it’s a parade he’s leading, and the thing was always his idea. I suspect we’ve not heard the last of this one, and that we’ll get a second heapin’ helpin’ of this BS come election time. I can’t remember, but I think Chuckles’ seat is up next year. And I can’t help but think there’s something odd about the way this all went down. Almost as if T-W was giving Chuckles a flag to wave. I’ll be interested in looking at the list of corporate donations of Time Warner, myself. Is Chuckles on the list, I wonder? I suspect he is.- Fire them: Jen Rubin makes a great point [8], today:
Really, at this point any CEO who agrees to do business with the government should be fired. If he signs up with the government, he in essence is turning over control of his company to political operatives who bounce from position to position like ping pong balls. Public opinion squawks, they jump and the rules are different. This is the worst form of statist intervention — lawless and unpredictable.
You should by now have figured out why I’m a fan and put this lady on your required reading. It’s true; Is working with the this anti-business, anti-freedom government [9] a sound business proposition? I don’t think so. While Jennifer puts these thoughts into well written words, the concept is hardly original or unique. On that basis, I can’t help but think there’s going to be serious shareholder backlash in a lot of companies for any board that jumps into bed with the Obama Administration.
- It’s in the pocket: One compnay that has unquestionably jumped in bed with Obama, is GE, where an interesting fight occurred at the GE Shareholders meeting, yesterday. Apparently among other things they’re worried about the leftward tilt of NBC. [10] O’Reilly touches on this last night, and franky, while I’ve never been a fan of his, it’s impossible to say his conclusions are incorrect.
- Time to go, Janet: I’ll make this short and sweet, because I’m with David on this one: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is an international embarrassment [11], and it’s time to get her out of that position and out of the public eye. Or would be, for any other administration. Apparently, there’s a number of Republicans going to meet with Obama today to discuss just that [12]. May have already happened by the time this gets read; I don’t know the schedule, particularly. The problem is, she and Obama are ideologues of the same stripe. That’s why she was appointed in the first place. Getting rid of Napolitano won’t get rid of the problem… which is the mindset of the person who appointed her. Still, it’s time for her to be gone.
- Paging Ron Brown and Vince Foster…. I get the impression it’s going to be years before we fully understand what motivated David Kellerman to off himself yesterday. If he did. But there are clues…
Both the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are reporting that Freddie Mac’s Chief Financial Officer, David Kellermann, who was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide, was involved in recent months in a heated dispute with Freddie’s regulator over how to reflect costs of President Obama’s anti-foreclosure program.The Post said Kellermann and other Freddie officials “tussled” with the Federal Housing Finance Agency early last month as the company prepared to file a quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Top executives, including Kellermann, were insistent that Freddie Mac inform shareholders of the cost to the company of helping carry out the Obama administration’s housing recovery plan, the two newspapers reported. The Post, citing several unnamed sources, said the regulators “urged the company not to do so.” An unnamed FHFA official who spoke to the Post disputed that, “saying the regulator did not oppose disclosure but how the information was portrayed in the filing.”
As I suggested yesterday, this thing is starting to smell.
- Can I quote you on that? 25 More Classic Conservative Quotes [13]: From RWN, who I don’t link nearly as often as he deserves.Also see 40 Classic Conservative Quotes [14]
- Paid Volunteers?
[15]Democrat party logic, of course, under the guise of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act that was just signed into law. McQ spouts on the subject. [16] I wonder; Will Lifeguards be covered under this act? Consider the ignominy of being called an Edward M. Kennedy memorial lifeguard. - But what if the 17 year old has a headache in school? [17]I note Joyner commenting [17]on the FDA’s ruling that “Plan B” can go on sale to 17 year olds without a prescription. The timing of this is interesting, given it smacks up against the case before the USSC about strip searching a 13 year old for asprin. Priorities, ya know.
- It ain’t easy, being green: So lemme understand this now: Obama flies across the country in a huge jet, burning 18,000 gallons of fuel in the process, so he can give a speech in front of a windmill [18]on the virtues of being ‘green’? Tell me again how this isn’t all for show, and why we’re supposed to take the man seriously, at ANYTHING. And the rabbits. Don’t forget to tell me about the rabbits.
- They shoot up horses, don’t they? With those 20 some odd polo ponies [19] dying mysteriously I find the timing of this story [20]of interest. Just sayin’… Weird timing, maybe. (Update: they’re now saying it was the vitamin supliments, some weird cocktail called Biodyl, made by the French and banned here. But, What if the vitamin supliments were… suplimented? )