Leon Panetta, Spymaster

Emboldened by the criticism that wasn't, Barack Obama went ahead and named party hack Leon Panetta to Director of Central Intelligence.

I think Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star cartoonist Clay Jones summed up this choice nicely yesterday.

Obama: Not so fast on that digital TV thing

Barack Obama's transition team is urging congress to postpone the date for transition from analog to digital TV broadcasts.

President-elect Barack Obama is urging Congress to postpone the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital television broadcasting, arguing that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air channels won't be ready.

[ ... ]

"With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient, and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively mandated analog cutoff date," Podesta wrote to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Commerce committees.

They're right to request the postponement given that the coupon program ran out of money sooner than expected and there are unknown numbers of Americans who won't be able to get the converters.

Fox News fear mongering

I don't know who the hell decides what goes on the web site at Fox News Channel, but they're starting to look a bit like Weekly World News when they keep putting crap like this on their front page. The actual space.com article they lifted is, of course, somewhat less alarmist.

More to the point, the much ballyhooed renewed cycle of solar activity is not only largely truant, it may not live up to expectations when it does show up.

And the global warming theocrats so want solar cycle 24 to start, and start big while global temperatures remain low. The only problem for them is that when solar activity does pick up again and is followed by increases in global temperatures, how will they spin it?

Conditional patriotism

I've noted before that the patriotism of the left appears conditional upon who's president at a given point in time. Via Hot Air we're provided additional evidence of that.

The hundreds who massed at the University of California [Berkeley, natch. --ed.] campus here on election night responded to Barack Obama's victory by heading off on a route that has been for a generation the sacred way for the activist left: out the campus gates, through Sproul Plaza, and down Telegraph Avenue toward People's Park.

By the time they arrived at the intersection of Telegraph and Durant avenues, where a tie-dye vendor occupies one corner, it became clear they did not come to challenge the system now preparing to consecrate a new regime in Washington. At one point, a man scaled a lamppost and unfurled the Stars and Stripes. The crowd broke out in the national anthem.

"People finally felt like our generation had reclaimed patriotism," said Haley Fagan, 24, a Berkeley paralegal who got stuck in a car trying to cross the street as the crowd surged. "It was a moment that we felt comfortable with it."

After generations of finding their voice in dissidence, some Americans on the left wing are adjusting not only to a new postelection comfort with patriotic symbols, but also to the political reality they represent. Believing in Obama after Inauguration Day will mean identifying with the machinery of U.S. power.

Of course, us knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed wingnuts on the right will continue to be just as patriotic and love our country just as much in another two weeks when Barack Obama is sworn in as president, while in another four or eight years the leftists can go back to hating the country that offers them the freedom to do so. More likely, they'll find out in a year or so that America is still America regardless of who's president and they can go right back to hating it that much sooner.

Leon Panetta for DCI? Really?

You've got to be kidding me. Barack Obama has picked Leon Panetta to head up CIA.

Leon Panetta, Barack Obama's surprise choice to head the CIA, clearly isn't someone with much hands-on national security or intelligence experience. But no one disputes that the man knows government.

[ ... ]

"It is true that he doesn't have an intelligence background. But he certainly dealt with intelligence. In the Iraq Study Group, we dealt with it every day. He certainly dealt with it as chief of staff," said Democrat Lee Hamilton, former chairman of the House International Relations Committee and chairman of the Iraq Study Group. Panetta brings an "outside perspective" to the job, he said.

In other words, his "experience" in intelligence is as a consumer of intelligence product, not as a producer of it. There's a vast and significant difference between the two. Being a consumer of fine wine doesn't mean you know jack shit about making it.

Even fellow California Democrat Dianne Feinstein isn't sold:

Fellow Californian Sen. Dianne Feinstein, set to chair the Select Committee on Intelligence, indicated that the choice caught her off guard.

"I know nothing about this other than what I read. My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time," she said in a statement.

Great...a partisan hack and presidential lapdog at CIA. What could possibly go wrong?

If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance...

...baffle 'em with bullshit. It seems the Taliban are taking that advice seriously.

The Taliban claims its forces last year killed 5,220 foreign troops, downed 31 aircraft, destroyed 2,818 NATO and Afghan vehicles and killed 7,552 Afghan soldiers and police.

Obama's influence

My brother Mark sent me this pic from Jerusalem Post, which appears to be from some pro-Palestinian demonstration.

How about a response: "Jihad. Yes we JDAM!"

Gadget rant: Plantronics 360 Bluetooth headset

This is the Plantronics 360 Bluetooth headset, a reasonably-priced model at around 35 bucks. OK, I'll stop fawning over this monument to stupidity and get this out of the way right now: Don't get one. And keep in mind that I haven't even used this thing yet.

My first Bluetooth headset, a Jabra BT350, finally gave up the ghost a while back. It was a damned good headset and served me well for about four years. But nothing lasts forever, and in dire need of one, Mrs. Poolbar gave me hers to use since she never used it anyway. While working from home one day, I left it on a table in between calls and one of our cats ran off with it. We looked all over but I suspect it's in some part of the house only the cats know about. Anyway, yesterday I finally picked up a new one.

This morning I wrestled the package open (product packaging is a rant for another day) and popped the headset out, along with the charger. My first thought was, "What the hell? What kind of Bluetooth headset these days comes with an AC charger? I looked at the protective cover on the headset's charger receptacle and was happy to see the well-known standard USB symbol there, meaning I could just use any one of my eleventy or so USB cables to charge the headset. Not so fast there, Sparky.

When I lifted the cover I saw immediately that the receptacle is NOT a standard USB port. Fan-freaking-tastic! It's a USB port, but it's Plantronics' own proprietary USB port! I was dumbfounded. Why on earth would Plantronics develop their own special USB port when mini-USB ports already exist? And since Plantronics offers an optional USB cable to charge the headset, why the hell don't they just ship the headset with that cable instead of a wall charger that surely costs more to produce?

Arrrrggghhh!

Hey! Where did everybody go?

So Mrs. Poolbar and I along with the youngest of the Poolbar spawn drove up from Virginia to Connecticut today to spend a few days with family after the holiday insanity. Traveling through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York on the way to Connecticut on a Friday - the day after New Year's day, no less - I was certain would be a test of my patience.

While it wasn't exactly like one of those post-apocalyptic zombie movies where we had the roads entirely to ourselves, it was probably the easiest such trip I've made yet. Not a traffic backup anywhere.

Is it another sign of a truly shitty economy when nobody's driving even when gas is the lowest it's been in four years?

Predictions for 2009

For the first time ever, The Pool Bar issues its predictions for the New Year. Without further ado, our predictions for 2009.

January:
In a massive government shake-up, the President of the United States steps down and is replaced by some guy who always thought it would be cool to be president. At the inauguration, the new president has to provide eight forms of ID and three character witnesses to convince the Supreme Court Chief Justice that his name really is Barack Obama.

February:
After the new president does some tinkering with "that, uh, economy thingy", the Dow Jones Industrial Average tests new lows around 600 and unemployment reaches 23%. Wall Street looks something like this:


March:
Pressed by his supporters, Obama is forced to accelerate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The most elite and battle-hardened return to the US to start training Obama's "Civilian National Security Force". The rest are sent to Afghanistan.

April:
With the economy in shambles and Islamist terror attacks in the US now a near-weekly occurrence, Americans become nostalgic for earlier, simpler days. Apple, sensing a market trend, introduces the iPod Retro...it looks something like this:


May:
In a hastily called press conference, President Obama announces that thanks to unspecified measures taken by his administration, the planet has been healed of the scourge of global warming, and we must never speak of this issue again.

June:
President Obama issues a press release announcing that withdrawal of forces from Iraq is complete and that he has managed to save Iraqis from the disastrous policies of his predecessor. A departing US Marine snapped this picture of Baghdad before boarding the last helicopter on the roof of the US Embassy in Baghdad:


July:
Major League Baseball announces that sufficient funding has been raised for the first games of the season to be played by mid-month. Fans are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs.

August:
Unable to afford the usual vacation, many Americans are forced to economize.


September:
The New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ both stop trading indefinitely. Street corner musicianship in New York City skyrockets.

October:
Germany concludes another successful, though somewhat toned down, Oktoberfest.


November:
After failing to locate alternate venues, the National Football League announces there will not be a 2009 NFL season due to the Obama administration's expropriation of all football stadiums for use as "training facilities".

December:
Citizens march on Washington, request a word with President Obama.

Caught in the act!

This stunning photo shows Illinois senate nominee Roland Burris taking a cashier's check from his pocket to hand to Gov. Rod Blagojevich in payment for appointing him to Barack Obama's senate seat.

Shocking!

Blago & Burris

To be honest, I've only been half-following the whole Rod Blagojevich story, including the latest with his nomination of Roland Burris to take Barack Obama's vacated senate seat.

It seems the Senate Democratic leadership is freaking out about the Burris nomination, not so much over Burris himself but over Blago's appointment of anyone to the seat. If I understand things correctly, Democrats are worried that anyone appointed by Blagojevich will be so tainted that they'd have no chance to keep the seat in Democrat hands in the 2010 election.

So once again with the Democrats, it's a matter of party over principle. Blagojevich remains Governor of Illinois. He's been charged with crimes, but as yet remains not only unconvicted but unindicted. And Patrick Fitzgerald - the federal prosecutor investigating Blago - has just requested a 90 day extension on the deadline for filing an indictment with a grand jury. As Governor, Blago still has duties to discharge, and one of those duties is to appoint a replacement to congress in the event of death or resignation of one of his state's representatives or senators.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has threatened to deny Burris' seating under Article 1, Section 5 of the constitution, which reads:

Section 5: Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member.

Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

It's the bolded part that leads Harry Reid to believe he can keep Blago's appointee out of the senate. But here's what the constitution says about senate qualifications:

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

Now I've got nowhere near enough self-loathing to be a lawyer, but it seems pretty clear to me that Roland Burris meets the constitutional definition of qualification. But that doesn't matter to Democrats who'll engage in any kind of chicanery necessary to keep a senate seat in the hands of the Democrats.

Update: A couple of law professors say the senate can refuse to seat Burris on the basis of judging the "returns" laid out in Article 1, Section 5 if they can legitimately say they believe he was selected under dubious circumstances.

Random post-New Year party rambling

So I saw the headline on this Fox News article just now and got confused:

Teacher Fired for Marrying Divorced Man to Sue Catholic School

I read this as some teacher being fired because she married a divorced man in order to sue the school. Hey, gimme a break...I was at a New Year's party, fer cryin' out loud!

Speaking of the New Year's party...entertainment was provided by a band called BPM. They're a three-piece funk kinda band that performs mostly covers with a few originals thrown in. Actually, some of the covers they play sound better than the originals. Mrs. Poolbar and I have seen them a few times, and they rock.

BPM stands for Bearce, Phil and Mills, by the way...not beats per minute. Catch 'em if they happen to play anywhere near you.

Anyway...Happy New Year!