Final post. Farewell President Bush

I suppose this is befitting for a final post here at this blog. He sure may not have been the greatest president, but I think we can all agree his presidency stands out among them all. From the beginning he's had it rough. And it only got worse. Few things are certain: he led us through it all and kept us safe.



Vid from Allahpundit.

Sick and tired, but it's been fun. Thanks

Both literally and figuratively. I can't seem to shake this cold. It seems that for every year I age, my colds tend to last another day or two and increase in severity. It's not like I don't take care of myself.

As for the figuratively part, and besides being busy the last, well, couple years, I've been anything but motivated to keep this blog going. I've gone from a couple of hits a day, to thousands a day, and well, now am lucky to get more than a hundred visitors a day. Not complaining, just pointing out that my stats reflect my effort.

I think I'm calling it quits for this blog. Not cold turkey, but this blog is pretty much done. I've got another idea in the works, and maybe will return full-time next year under a new blog with a new name. New everything. Maybe.

And it's not very often I agree with liberals like Greenwald, but he has a point. And in a way I'm glad (though he's not). Obama looks to be centering himself. Including the Democrats in Congress. I mean, imagine if the next presidency was going to act how the congressional Democrats did for the last 8 years? They were insane with flaming rage only to be fanned by their base. God forbid.

And that doesn't give the rightosphere much opportunity. I'm sure there will be, but for right now, the blogosphere is pretty quiet, and consequently boring. I've never been one to care much about local or regional politics, obscurities, or any other niche outside issues of national significance, so I won't be doing this again, for a while at least.

Thanks for reading.

We're all equal under the law...

Unless you happen to be more equal:

A 17-year-old Sheboygan girl was charged Thursday with misdemeanor sexual assault for allegedly having sex with her 14-year-old boyfriend.

Norma J. Guthrie, of 1034-A Michigan Ave., was in court a day after a 17-year-old Sheboygan boy was charged with a felony for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girlfriend.

Via Fark.

What's next, bomb Pakistan? Obama plans to talk to Hamas

Via Drudge:

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon President Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas - which could be initiated through the US intelligence services - would represent a definitive break with the Bush presidency's ostracising of the group.

The Guardian has spoken to three people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp.

There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on in his administration, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive.

Unless the Guardian is misinformed, this will be at the very least, interesting to see. I don't what opening up talks with someone who wants nothing less than the extermination of a key ally will get us. Probably a just pissed-off ally, and that's if we're lucky.

Environmentalists call police on... beavers

Heh.

Iran shuts down paper for calling Hamas terrorists, skies blue...

The shocking thing here, unfortunately, is that Iran even had a paper like this.

The Iranian press watchdog shut down leading reformist newspaper Kargozaran on Wednesday over publication of a piece criticising Palestinian militants, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Kargozaran has been banned over a media offence and the case has been referred to the court," Mohammad Parvizi, who is in charge of domestic media at the culture ministry, told IRNA.

He said the ban was ordered over "a piece yesterday which justifies the Zionist regime's crimes against humanity in Gaza and portrays the Palestinian resistance as terrorists who cause the deaths of children and civilians by taking up position in kindergartens and hospitals."

Via Reason.

Harry Reid denies Burris his seat

Admittedly, I enjoy the Democrats engaging in circus acts to cover their ass, often to the point of doing more damage to themselves than had the metaphoric shit hit the fan anyway.

But I agree with Reid; any appointment by Blagojevich would be and should be opposed. I don't think race has anything to do with it, rather the little institutional integrity the Senate has left ought to be protected regardless of its racial make-up. It shouldn't be another victim of Chicago politics.

NBC, Ann Coulter. Update: suckered

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter writes a book about liberal bias in the news media and their preferential treatment of Obama. So NBC bans her. Oh, good heavens no, not for that!

For being critical of Obama.

Way to prove her thesis there boys.

So... she got rescheduled. Was this stunt Ann's doing alone, or was someone at NBC in on it? Drudge got played, or he was more than happy to be a part of it. Who cares?

Britain allows police to hack PCs... sans warrants

I can't pretend to be shocked anymore, this is typical 21st century Britain.

THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.

The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws.

The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room.

Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.

"...from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage..."

Krugman on how to fix this mess

His article goes something like this:

Friedman was an idiot. Keynes was a genius.

Krugman's solution is basically to spend money like it's going out of style. I don't know. But I do know I liked Lewis and Einhorn's article better. Different focus, but similar points.

Heh

That's funny.

Via HotAir

Question

I thought we were against any and all things Blagojevich when that recording came to light. And an appointment by him to Obama's senate seat would be and should be opposed.

So now that it happens to be a black man, and that it's looking bad for Reid & co. we're all for it?

This is how the Right spends their time in Valley Forge.

New year, new objectives.

Although for many, they may not be so new:

The simple fact is that people can be fellow travellers on a path that leads to liberty without all marching in ideological lock-step. It just boils down to asking the question "do you want the state to have less control over people's lives or more control?" If a person can honestly answer that they think the state is too powerful and needs to be reduced, that is a fellow traveller.

This is the time to apply that test to Republican politicians, every last one of them... and drive any who fail that simple test out of the party by whatever means necessary. Now is the time for a figurative internal 'Night of the Long Knives'. This is the opportunity to destroy a great many political careers and remake the Republican Party into the party of constitutionally limited government and to start fighting the culture war that the party should have been fighting since the day Ronald Reagan left office with his job only half done.

Big tent, core principles. It's as if such an idea is foreign to the Republican Party, given their behavior the past several years.