Badtux went back to his archives, to show that he identified Obama as not being anything close to a liberal in January 2008.

I wrote in January 2008:

Natasha wondered about the other candidate in Obama: Another Liberdem? The answer is yes. Don’t listen to his speeches, read his positions. The man has more in common with Arlen Specter than John Kennedy. He’s a moderate to conservative Republican and further to the right than Hillary Clinton.

Avedon Carol points out how unliberal the “Health Care Reform” is. What is being offered is a massive windfall for insurance companies, for which people receive next to nothing. Having “health insurance” is not the same as having “health care”.

Digby notes that ActBlue has raised $114+ million on-line since 2004 and about one million went to Obama. Surely that qualifies ActBlue as a “Center” or “Power Forward” on Obama’s Team. If they were ActBlue, Inc., they wouldn’t be ignored, they would have gotten a slot as an ambassador to some small country where nothing happens.

People seem to forget that when you listen to an Obama speech, you are watching a performance. Obama isn’t the “playwright”, he’s the “lead actor”. Great orators write their own speeches, like Lincoln and Barbara Jordan. That’s a major reason why I have never heard an Obama speech. I assume he’s a competent actor, but I want to see what the play is really about. I see a lot of comments that indicate that people are falling for the form and missing the substance.

The county just ran a test on their reverse 911 system, calling everyone to test it, and then set off a warning siren at noon. The only thing going on is flooding along the Yellow River in the North County, but there is no notification up there as the signal fire system doesn’t work well in the rain, although the dogs should pick up the sound of the siren and start baying.

Apparently this is an opt-in system, so I guess I’m going to have to deal with it this afternoon.

On the labor front, the Pensacola News Journal reports: State jobless rate up to 11.5 percent

The Agency for Workforce Innovation said today there are 1,056,000 people out of work in the state. The state’s jobless rate is 1.5 points higher than the national average of 10 percent — and the highest Florida has recorded since May 1975, when it hit 11.9 percent.

Health care was the only sector that didn’t lose jobs. Too bad Congress can’t figure out how to pay for health care, since those seem to be the only people working.

I got a collect call from the county jail. I didn’t accept it. It must have been a mis-dialed number, because I’m not known for helping out people who do truly stupid things and I have major objections to the business that profits from the calls. In my opinion they should be in the jail, not profiting from it.

It is still raining and cold. When the rain stops it will get even colder. This mess is supposed to start moving North, which means major snow for the last weekend before Christmas. That will really help sales.

Update: Local bank, First Peoples Community Bank, got “eated” today. Actually, it was more of a nibble than a real bite, because they were small, but they got involved in the real estate madness.

Remembering the Sun

It will be back, right?

[Editor: Excise from late summer of ’08 because it is cold, damp, and miserable around here, and Real Life is being really time-consuming.

Friday Ark