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The difference between Can’t and Won’t

Posted: July 27, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The AP reports that the democrats can’t pass heathcare without the republicans:

Democratic and GOP officials acknowledged Sunday that Obama’s ambitious plan would not pass without the aid of a doubtful GOP, whose members are almost united against the White House effort.

“Look, there are not the votes for Democrats to do this just on our side of the aisle,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the chairman of the budget committee.

The reality is not that they can’t it is that they won’t. These people know what this bill will do to the country and to their electoral futures. Those democrats are not going to give up their political futures just to give president Obama a cheap win (well not cheap).

Don Suber has the right idea:

Republicans should say to hell with the Democrats and the unprecedented and infantile partisanship of the president. The way to win back control of Congress and the presidency is to deny Obama the nation-breaking health insurance program that he wants.

He is right about that, but the big thing is we also need to deny the democrats in General and President Obama in particular the chance to shift the blame. In the Senate our famous Republicans from Maine will provide him with some cover but in the house he won’t get cover unless we give it to them.

If republicans in the house choose to give them that cover then they don’ t deserve our votes, if the republican party aids this monstrosity then they don’t derseve our funds.

We know the value of our ticket

Posted: July 27, 2009 by datechguy in oddities
Tags: ,

I was driving today, off to pay the mortgage and my property taxes, and had the radio on listening to Rush, during the 12:30 break the local station has one of those CBS moneyline breaks and they were talking about sports temas and the economy and the idea of dropping ticket prices and there was a quote from someone who was opposed to the idea.

The person said that they thought dropping the ticket prices was a bad idea since it might mislead the customer as to the value of their ticket.

THE VALUE OF THE TICKET? I think that changes in the way things have been done lately might be confusing something.

If I have a ticket to a Red Sox game it has value because I want to go to the damn game. It has no value otherwise.

If I want to sell the ticket it’s only value is the desire of someone else to see that particular game.

Now you might have a special event at a particular game but a game is a game is a game. If you are a fan of a particular starter or say of a team that is visiting the ticket might command a larger price (Read: Sox Yankees), but the idea that you might confuse fans as to the value of the product by dropping the price in this case is just plain foolish.

“Just one Minute” sets his tardis to 1961

Posted: July 25, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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One of the things that I enjoy about Doctor Who historical stories are the reactions of the Tardis crew to the mindsets of various ancient times and the clashes in culture that take place. One of the weaknesses that can take place is when a person taken from their own time ends up acts with 21st century reactions.

The Very good Blog Just one Minute forgets this fact when making his case for the president mother et/al having a motivation to provide false documents concerning her child’s birth. He says as follows:

My point, then and recently – Barack’s mom and maternal grandparents had a strong incentive to create a paper trail documenting Obama as a US citizen back in 1961 and it had nothing to do with assuring his future viability as a Presidential candidate. Alll they needed to do was imagine a day when the white Ms. Dunham would be engaged in a custody fight in a Kenyan court contesting the fate of a black Kenyan baby sought by the black Kenyan father and his African family, and their course would have been clear.

To us in the year 2009, a land where Gay marriage is debated and legal in some states, where Christianity is openly mocked on television cartoons to win awards, where 77 year old men are surgically altered to be 77 year old “women” and where father’s day affairs don’t drive governors from office and where an Anglican priest can describe Abortion as a blessing, that might fly….

However in 1961 Culturally all of those things would be impossible, rejected and scandalous. The concept of divorce itself was not very well excepted outside of Hollywood or the elites. Hell a pre-nup would have been considered off the wall. The thought particularly at the time of marriage that it was going to end in a custody fight just didn’t wash.

The US was at it’s height of self confidence as well. The idea that a US court was going to rule against a US citizen in a fight over a child, particular in favor of a non Christian Black African was far fetched. Cripes; Miranda rights didn’t even exist at the time.

It would be like going to 1896 and saying to someone “Michael Jackson is cool.” They would tell him to come closer to the fire. The idea that she was planning for a custody fight in 1961 would be a foreign to her as the idea of e-mail.

This is exactly the opposite of the mistake the AP is making with bloggers. AP is trying to win an argument using the norms of the past. This argument is applying the norms of today to a different culture. It just doesn’t wash.

Update: My own argument concerning this is here.

The President runs for cover on Gates

Posted: July 24, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , ,

Suddenly the president has gone before the press to try to back off, suddenly instead of being stupid Mr. Gates and the police are both good people and might have over reacted.

The policeman in question has apparently been called by Obama and there is a great exchange over getting the press off his lawn.

It is interesting to note that it was after the Gates incident that his polls dropped below 50%.

This was actually a smart move by the president, this was going to bleed until they backed up, what will really be interesting will be how the liberal media which was all over the police over this will now react to the president’s sudden volte face.

This is now the only story on every Boston network.

Update: MSNBC is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen they are saying that Obama has handled this exactly right. I’m hope Patterico & Sister Toldjah weren’t drinking when they saw that.

Hotair comments it is a good distraction from Healthcare, but I don’t agree since it was a lead balloon to his popularity. 40 years ago Johnson figured if he lost Cronkite he lost middle America. Obama must have figured that if he lost Jon Stewart then it was time to cut bait, Rosa Parks not withstanding.

Question: If MSNBC and the other Obama media were all ready to lynch the police over this as little as a few hours ago, how are they going to re-spin themselves now that the president has backed off?

Update 2: Here is the actual video:

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