Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble
Snow on the ground, today… first of the season. Just what I needed to brighten my spirits. Not…
[1]I know David has his questions [2]about all the rattle and hum on Hillary Clinton as Secratary of State. I do too, frankly, for all the reasons David lists and more. Frankly, those are concerns are offset in my view, that Obama would have little to gain in the long term by sending this out as a smoke screen, and then picking someone else. His interest in her for the role may well be misguided, as are many things he says he’s committed to… but I judge the probability that his interest is sincere to be high. Interesting how quickly we fal into the mode os trying to see through the smokescreens already. Just like we learned to do under Bill Clinton. Maybe we’d better keep the ice handy.- I know I’ve written to the issue of the Big Three auto bailout [3]previously, but this will be short and sweet. Republicans should come right out and say that if the Democrats are so high on bailing out the Big Three, fine… let them… but they then should attach a condition that all union contracts with the companies being bailed out are null and void. Barring that, let the big three… all of them… go bankrupt, which would have the same effect. We hear Democrats complaining loud and long about the suppsoedly excessive pay structure of bank officers of banks that have been bailed out. Notice, please that these same people have held their silence on excessive union wages and bennies of car companies they propose to bail out. Should make you wonder why, says I.
- I wrote, this morning about Jonestown and the cult that Obama has gathered [4], and how they compare. Howard Kurtz, God bless him, is seeing the same thing. [5]
- A second place AND an Honorable Mention at OTB’s Caption Contest [6]. Let’s just say that one presented a target rich environment.
- Speaking of OTB, Joyner mentions:
Joe Lieberman is going to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee after all but, in a stunning rebuke over years of constant disloyalty to the Democratic Party, he’s being stripped of his Environment and Public Works subcommittee.
Well, yeah… you can understand the thinking here. We’re going to get clobbered wth enviro-whackjob laws pretty quckly… and they want someone in those positions who will tow the line. They’re not all that worried about DHS… in fact their base would be happy if that got trashed… so, help yourself, Joe.
- I mentioned the then- just- breaking Mark Cuban /Insider trading thing yesterday. I questioned if it was payback for raising questions about Obama. The New York Times [7], apparently oblivious to all that, questions if it’s because he’s gone after Bush in the past. Whatever’s going on, we’re not going to be able to figure it all out because of the smokescreen Cuban himself is hoisting, here. I don’t trust a damn thing any one of them is telling us about this. Why on earth would an SEC official be contacting Cuban in an official capaity as he claims? Sorry, no sale. The most obvious conclusion to draw is that Cuban is guilty as hell, knows it, and is mouthing accusations about it being all George Bush’s fault out of defensive reflex. Bainbridge has more [8].
- We remakred the other day, here about how the war in Iraq was won, and yet most people don’t know. Here’s why. [9] I’d say this kinda thing [10]plays heavy, too. (And yes, David has more on THAT [11], too. )
- I remarked here yesterday abut how Spam is doing pretty well of late. Reynolds links Spam sales and Gun sales [12] , which also have been doing very well indeed… and wonders if it’s in reaction to what’s coming. I made the connection on the guns, myself but not the Spam. Makes sense, though, and I wish I’d thought of that angle.
- Ted Kennedy came to Capital hill again, yesterday. He’s been working with Max Baucus whose socilaist healthcare efforts David blogged about. Teddy’s all about the healthcare, these days. I guess after denying a drowning girl healthcare, he wants all of us to pay for his crime.
- Comsumer prices [13]dropped by a record 2.8%. Not to worry, though; most of that’s Gasoline, [14]though some of it is housing. [15] Can’t be all that bad, though when you see Gold falling. [16]
- Couple inches of snow on the ground this morning, and more since. The first few snowfalls around here tend to be like the Bumper cars at 6 Flags as people remember how to drive in the stuff. Bloody amaing, you should pardon the pun.