Nightly Ramble:The “Boy are We Ever LOST” Edition

Welcome to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere, the ever increasingly popular Bitsblog Nightly Ramble.

This is the “Boy are we ever LOST” edition.

WARNING: This Bitsblog entry may contain information that is
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• Between a rock and a Steele place: Interesting article from Paul Bedard this morning, entitled “GOP to Michael Steele: Quiet About Rush Limbaugh or You’re Fired”. Interesting, I say, given my response to that situation yesterday.  Almost as if they were listening. Or, perhaps the answers are obvious. Anyway, Bedard says:
  

  Of concern: For no reason, he is dividing the GOP between conservatives who like Limbaugh and moderates who don’t and jeopardizing future fundraising efforts, his key responsibility. “The general sentiment of the conference is that Steele needs to step back and get a handle on his role in the party,” says an influential congressional aide. Namely, advisers want him to stay out of the media and focus instead on hiring his staff and revamping the RNC. “He needs to hire staff for the RNC, get the operations up and running, start raising money, and understand that his role is to win elections,” says a senior party adviser. Officials are concerned that Steele either doesn’t understand his responsibilities or has an inflated vision of his role. “At this point, it is as if he has a fundamental misunderstanding of the job description. An RNC chairman who attacks Republicans and insults conservative icons is about as counterproductive as any Democrat could hope for,” says the adviser.

  And here I was thinking that the whole of the party had lost it’s friggin’ mind.  Comforting to know it’s merely a subset of the party that’s involved with this nonsense.  One really must wonder, though, what his motivations were… and if he was acting at the direction of someone, whom?  Here’s the thing; His comments mesh so well with the party as we saw it during the most recent eection campaign…. well, you get the idea.  I tell ya… we need to weed this ‘centrist’ business… this misbegotten notion that the only way Republicans are going to win is if we curb our principles, out of the party. If that means Steele goes, that’s OK, too. But let’s also target those who are only giving lip service to Conservative ideas and ideals, or the job’s not done. The name ‘Cantor’ leaps to mind, unless some changes happen with him. I’d rather have these folks with us, but not at the expense of what we stand for. And look; I’m aware that Steele is new at this job, hasn’t got a team set up yet, and is flying both blind and alone.  I know full well how that affects the look and feel of the finished product. I’m somewhat sympathetic to that argument, offered several times to me in yesterday’s email.  But I suggest that in such situations, humans usually will fall back to their inner clock, their bedrock values. Even if they leak out at inopportune moments, that leak gives us a unique and telling view of what  the values are inside. If that’s the case here, we have a serious problem on our hands… and one that his having a proper team in place will only amplify.  Time will tell.

• Part of the plan: It would appear, though, that Steele ended up playing, perhaps unwittingly,  into the hands of the likes of Carville, Begala, and so on, who whipped up this attack on Limbaugh and the Republican grassroots, last fall.  I told you yesterday that the object here is to get the Republican leadership to back away from it’s grassroots, and thereby from Republican… and yes.. conservative principles. Get the Republicans to disown Limbaugh, and you’ve disconnected them from their grassroots, thereby crippling them.  Given Steele’s comments it nearly worked. Given the article, Eric was right again. Oh…. and….. Welcome to the bigtime, Mike. 
• Study: Don’t trust studies: Over at OTB, James Joyner passes along word of a medical study done by the AMA, the conclusion of which, is, well… don’t trust medical studies. Says the report:
  

  Level of evidence provides the link between recommendations and evidence base. Although there is significant variation among individual guidelines in available evidence supporting recommendations, the median of level of evidence A recommendations [i.e., those supported by more than one randomized trial] is only 11% across current guidelines, whereas the most common grade assigned is level of evidence C, indicating little to no objective empirical evidence for the recommended action. . . . Interestingly, our findings are reflective of a specialty — cardiology — that has a large pool of research to draw on for its care recommendations. Guidelines in other medical areas in which large clinical trials are performed less frequently may have an even weaker evidence-based foundation. [emphases original]]

  Says James:

  I’ve noted for years that the standards for publication in medical journals are far less rigorous than for publication in social science journals. This, despite the former being far more important and the widespread perception that the latter isn’t really science at all.

  Now, here’s something I’d like you to think about. Such studies often… heck… usually… end up influencing our healthcare by becoming a mandated treatment for insurnace purposes… or in the case of government healthcare, a law. You will follow their mandate, regardless of the whole thing being based on limited or non-existent scientific evidence.  Force of government is a marvelous thing; It is able to make people do stupid stuff, and make you think it’s the thing to do. It’s one way government getting between you and your doctor can ruin your health… for no good reason. And if you think it won’t happen that way, may I point to the increasingly draconian laws based on the supposedly scientific studies surrounding “‘global warming”?

•  Is MJ back? God, let’s hope not. But you know, there’s a lot of similarity with his history and how our government is being run just now. Think about his finances for one thing, and compare that to the spending spree Washington is now on.
• Trouble in Blue Doggieland? Not everyone is so happy with Obama’s path.
• Guess who else? The Russians are also among those less than impressed with Obama. He tried to do the water-walker number with them, and they basically told him to get lost, that they’re the ones in charge… and started dictating to him. So much for the ‘one world’ way of diplomacy. The White House is downplaying this screwup, of course.  It’s not an easy job scaraping egg of your face while trying to look presidential, but Obama’s doing his best to make it look in the press like it was intended as a beauty treatment. If it gets mentioned at all.
• I was going to comment on this, but Boortz did it already and likley did a better job, too:
  

  Some news about two of our favorites .. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The New York Times reports that more than likely, the companies will never fully return to private hands. This is a fact that lawmakers and company executives are starting to realize. Maybe that is why Freddie Mac’s CEO just resigned after six months on the job…

  There’s no question in my mind on that score. Further, I view this as the rats starting to jump ship. They know the thing is sinking. Welcome to Obama World. Can we crash the economy in 3 months? Yes, we can.

• About that; check Dick Morris’ column, today.
• Someone in Niagara Falls put on a sign up on their land saying “I rent three bedrooms [at her address to] white people Niagara Falls.”  You can imagine the reaction. Racist? Perhaps. But have you been in Niagara Falls lately? I’ll have to grab some pics of the place to show you, of the ‘better’ neighborhoods next time I’m there. And in any event, is this really fodder for the government?
• It wasn’t deregulation that destroyed our banks… it was Regulation.
•