Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

A SHAMELESS PLUG

It's December, and people start thinking about gifts.  Have you considered that a subscription to Urgent Agenda makes a fine gift for a person of like mind?  And, for people who disagree, it makes the kind of great punishment you've always wanted to mete out.  You win either way.

If you're a current subscriber, a gift subscription is only $21 for a year.  Just e-mail us the name and e-mail of the recipient, enter your gift by making a DONATION of $21 in the column on the right, and you're home.

If you're not a current subscriber, shame on you.  Redemption occurs when you enter a subscription in the column on the right, or enter a subscription with a gift subscription for someone else.

Subscriptions keep us going, and give you the Urgent Agenda you've come to expect.  Gift subscriptions spread the word and help us grow.   All subscribers and donators receive the Angel's Corner. 

By the way, we use PayPal for our subscription service.  If you don't like PayPal, or believe they're a threat to the Republic, just tell us and we'll give you a traditional, red-blooded American mail address

We are traveling to the Southland this morning on a traditional family trip, back early next week.  Urgent Agenda will continue to publish normally during this time, as we have mobile equipment that connects wirelessly to the internet.  If you suddenly see that we've stopped updating for a day, it means we've suffered a catastrophic technical failure and will be back online when we return, but that is highly unlikely.  We use good stuff.

DECEMBER 2,  2010

GETTING IT STRAIGHT – AT 8:34 P.M. ET:  Writing this from Maryland, a state that insists on remaining Democratic.  Teams of mental health workers are being rushed to Baltimore and will be available on mobile vehicles.

It's bizarre, but the administration is continuing to downplay the importance of the Wiki wickedness.  Small potatoes, major bigshots say.  Investors Business Daily, in an editorial, points out that foreign nations aren't seeing it quite that way:

"We should never be afraid of one guy who plopped down $35 and bought a Web address," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, taking the cake for absurdity. "Our foreign policy is stronger than that . .. . We're not scared of one guy, with one keyboard and a laptop."

On that logic, as wags from Lucianne.com noted, atomic particles wouldn't worry him either, and Joseph Goebbels was merely a man with a microphone.

And now for a more mature, post-freshman view:

The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. sources abroad are drying up, with WikiLeaks only erratically redacting source names.

How this could not amount to a crisis for U.S. diplomacy is beyond us. Pretending there's nothing to be alarmed about might work if the U.S. were dealing from a position of strength. But Assange is sitting on thousands of stolen documents he has yet to release. He already knows from his letters that the U.S. wants him to stop.

Now that he sees U.S. officials pretending there's no problem, he can chalk it up to their political game-playing. But Assange himself is an enemy, not a political opponent. He is not playing games.

COMMENT:  Well said.  The administration's assurances are embarrassing.  Foreign nations now know that they can't trust the United States with their comments and their secrets.  And some foreign leaders now know what our government really thinks of them.  Great way to get results.

The president himself should come forward and admit what the mess has caused.  And he should outline what his administration is doing to make sure that this kind of security breach never happens again.  But we haven't heard from Mr. Obama.

December 2, 2010     Permalink

INCREDIBLE – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  Amazon, the book-and-everything-else giant, made the correct decision in removing WikiLeaks from its site.  Now the political left, claiming free speech, is outraged:

The internet giant took action after coming under pressure from right-wingers in the US to stop hosting the site, which this week published tens of thousands of confidential diplomatic e-mails.

I love the term "right-wingers."  Apparently only "right-wingers" are outraged by these damaging leaks.  I believe that both the White House and Hillary Clinton denounced them.  Right-wingers?

Joe Lieberman, chairman of the senate homeland security committee, called on other companies to end their links with the website.

He said: ‘WikiLeaks’ illegal, outrageous, and reckless acts have compromised our national security and put lives at risk around the world.’

Correct.

But Amazon now faces protests from free speech campaigners, who say it should be ‘punished with boycott’ at what is its busiest trading period of the year.

In other words, deny Amazon its free speech rights.  The hypocrisy flows.

I suspect a lot of these "free speech" advocates are actually just traditional lefties who would be first in line to deny free speech to anyone who disagrees with them.

December 2, 2010      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 5:19 A.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government investigator says nearly 50,000 prison inmates claimed more than $130 million in tax refunds this year without providing any wage information to the IRS.

So what's the big deal?  Aren't they victims of an oppressive society?  Don't they deserve the refunds as a form of reparations?  And don't some people really think this way?

December 2, 2010      Permalink

MAJOR GOP MOVE, AND A GOOD ONE – AT 5:12 A.M. ET:  Hispanics are the fastest-growing group in America.  In terms of culture, they should be natural Republicans, but aren't.  The GOP, though, in one of its new initiatives that seeks to upgrade and modernize the party, won't accept that situation.  Good, good.  From The Politico:

Alarmed by the GOP’s alienation of Hispanic voters, a group of operatives and former elected officials has launched a bid to wrestle the party’s image back from illegal immigration foes – and it’s led by a Republican named Bush.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has teamed up with former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who served in former President George W. Bush’s Cabinet, and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), a one-time supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, to restore the Republican Party’s standing with this fastest-growing segment of the electorate.

The newly formed Hispanic Leadership Network marks the first major outreach effort by the wing of the Republican Party that believes it must change its tone towards Hispanics to stand any shot of winning back the White House in 2012. It’s backed by Republicans connected to the Bushes and Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, a group whose big-tent philosophy has been usurped in recent years by the tough rhetoric of illegal immigration opponents.

COMMENT:  Good move.  With newly elected Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and newly elected Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, the GOP has two great anchors for demonstrating its appeal to the Hispanic community.  Now it must come up with a thoughtful, imaginative immigration policy.

Oh, do I see Jeb Bush mentioned here?  Jeb Bush?  Brother of one president, son of another?  Wasn't he the guy, former governor of Florida, who said he wasn't interested in being president?  And now he's plunging back into politics in a major-league way.  Hmm.  How far off is 2012?

December 2, 2010      Permalink

LET'S GET THE PAPERWORK DONE, GUYS – AT 4:46 A.M. ET:  Pursuing the rogue at the head of WikiLeaks appears to be a growing priority among some, but not all, law-enforcement agencies.  Aside from releasing highly damaging documents that can get real people killed, he is also wanted in Sweden on a sexual assault charge.  It seems that paperwork may be holding up his arrest.  From Fox:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reportedly is hiding in Britain and police know his whereabouts but have refrained from acting on an international arrest warrant on rape allegations because Swedish authorities made a mistake when filling out the paperwork.

The 39-year-old Australian computer hacker has been out of public sight since a Nov. 5 news conference, but supplied British police with contact details upon his arrival in October, Britain's The Independent newspaper reported Thursday.

The paper cited police sources who said they knew where Assange was staying and had his telephone number. It added that it was believed he was in southeast England.

However, a British police source told the Times of London that Assange had escaped arrest because Swedish authorities failed to fill out his arrest warrant correctly.

http://www.urgentagenda.com/PERMALINKS%20V/DECEMBER%202010/02.WIKI.HTML

COMMENT:  Since Sweden is so socialist oriented, the government may have to appoint a commission to fill out the form.  Let them be quick about it.

I would hope our government is pursuing charges against Assange.  I am not an international lawyer, and don't know how that mechanism might work.  (Readers are invited to advise me.)  But the idea that someone could wreak such dangerous havoc with international diplomacy and escape punishment is not rational.

December 2, 2010      Permalink

THIS COUNTRY AND THIS DAY – AT 4:21 A.M. ET:  On this day in 1942, man achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.  The event occurred under the West Stands at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, under the direction of Enrico Fermi.

As a student at that university, I passed those stands almost every day, and sometimes paused to read the plaque:

The Chicago experiment was necessary to develop the atomic bomb.  We feared, with good reason, that the Nazis were working on the same weapon.  On December 2, 1942, victory over Nazi Germany and imperial Japan was by no means assured.  Yes, we had invaded Guadalcanal in the Pacific and North Africa on the other side of the Atlantic, but we were still hobbled by pre-war unpreparedness and unproved military leadership.

Enrico Fermi himself was a refugee from fascism.  Because his wife, Laura, was Jewish, he was forced to leave Mussolini's Italy.  His contribution to his adopted country was vast, and irreplaceable.  He was also a fine teacher of physics...and other things.  (He taught my wife's cousin how to ice skate.)

When I think of walking past that historic site, and the enormity of the effort this country put into winning World War II, it becomes that much more unnerving to read, as I have in the past few days, opinion columns declaring that America is in sad decline.  And it is true that, led by Barack Obama and his leftist choir, we do appear to be slipping away badly.

But don't believe it.

The last time we went through such a period of self-doubt was during the Carter administration more than 30 years ago, especially in the months following our failed attempt to rescue American hostages being held by the new, radical Iranian government.  I recall the leader of my daughter's Girl Scout troop wondering out loud whether this was still a capable country, whether we could still accomplish things.  After all, we'd been told by the press that we'd "lost" the Vietnam War just four years earlierr.

But, not too long afterward, Ronald Reagan was elected president, and our spirit was revived by a man who truly believed that it was always morning in America. 

We yearn for another Reagan right now.  We may or may not find him.  But we, as Americans, have always had a resourcefulness, an ingenuity, described well by Eisenhower in "Crusade in Europe."  We will succeed and grow again in greatness to the extent that we will it, in each home and county.

The one thing that can stop us, though, is an educational system, unique in our history, that is rotting the brains of our young.  If there is a single step we can take to reverse America's presumed decline it is to demand reform in our schools, and in the schools that teach our teachers.  No, we don't insist on an empty-headed nationalism or simplistic flag waving.  But we should insist on a teaching of this country's history that includes its glory as well as its defects, its vast appeal to the world as well as its errors.  More people want to come to America as immigrants each year than want to come to all other nations of the world combined.  We retain our magnetism.  If we will it, we will retain our greatness as well.

December 2, 2010     Permalink 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2010

OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – AT 10:22 P.M. ET:  Remember something called "civics"?  They taught us how government worked.  I think the "progressives" in the schools phased that out in favor of "alternative cultural narratives."  Maybe we should teach civics again so we can avoid this mess.  From Fox:

It had to happen. Democrats are in disarray over what to do about the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, and there have been no votes on any legislation since Tuesday morning, with the majority meeting behind closed doors nearly daily for the past week trying to chart a path forward. Republicans have dug in and decided to filibuster anything that isn't related to tax cuts and a stopgap spending measure, called a continuing resolution (CR), to keep the government operating. And the frustrations boiled over onto the Senate floor in a display of political theater on Wednesday.

Senate Democrats were visibly furious when all 42 of their GOP colleagues sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., essentially promising to block any measure that comes before tax cuts and a CR. One after another, Democrats in the majority sought to bring up a number of other measures, including an extension of unemployment insurance benefits which expired Tuesday on two million Americans, an energy measure, and various tax-related provisions.

"What, are we going to take our football and go home, just because they say they don't want to play ball?" asked Sen Claire McCaskill, D-Mo, as she departed an hours-long Democratic meeting in which the letter was discussed, adding, "Quit giving us ultimatums."

Republicans stood firm against any attempt to call up legislation not related to the Bush tax cuts, and at one point, Sen. John Barrasso, frustrated, actually read the GOP letter word for word for his Democratic colleagues, as Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-Ny, tried repeatedly to get the Wyoming Republican to object to an extension of tax rates for anyone making less than $1 million.

COMMENT:  It might be nice to remind our liberal friends that there was something called an election.  It's one of those quaint practices they do in democracies.  And elections have consequences.  And they're being felt now.

Wait 'til January, when the new troops arrive.  Our friends might require psychological intervention.

December 1, 2010      Permalink

WE WEEP, WE CRY OUT IN SYMPATHY – AT 8:14 P.M. ET:   Let's have some compassion for the Army guy who leaked all that classified information to WikiLeaks, and did all that damage.  From Media Research Center:

Instead of leading with how Army Private First Class Bradley Manning may have jeopardized national security with his document dump to WikiLeaks, NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, in his profile of Manning on Tuesday's Today show, told viewers he was the "most unlikely suspect, with a youthful smile" and portrayed him as an abused victim of the military. Miklaszewski used the New York Times' Ginger Thompson in his report to tell the tale of young man who apparently decided to avenge the abuse he had taken over the years, dating back to high school, by selling out his country.

COMMENT:  We do understand.  America is such a hard country to live in.  And I'll bet the atomic spies at Los Alamos didn't get the science prize in high school either. 

Another great day in journalism.

December 1, 2010      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 8:05 P.M. ET:

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is considering at least a short delay to the start of his holiday vacation in Hawaii so he can try to work out a deal with congressional Republicans on the Bush tax cuts that expire December 31, CNN has learned.

This president?  Delaying a vacation?  There are these noble moments in history.  Cherish them.  We may not see another delay like this again.

December 1, 2010       Permalink

THE MARCH OF ACADEMIC STANDARDS – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:   Let us feel only sympathy for the backbreaking work that our college students do, challenged each day to expand their intellects. 

EVANSTON, Ill., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Northwestern University in suburban Chicago said 16 students are learning about history through the lens of the AMC series "Mad Men."

Michael Allen, the history professor teaching the freshman seminar, said the students enrolled in "Consumerism and Social Change in Mad Men America, 1960-1963," are learning about topics including the beginnings of social reform movements by watching and analyzing the first season of the series about an advertising agency, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

"It shows the way the 1950s and 1960s blend together and how they related to each other," Allen said of the series.

COMMENTS:  $52,000 a year.

December 1, 2010       Permalink

ANOTHER DISSENTER SPEAKS OUT – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  One of the myths spread by the global warming industry (with retail outlets conveniently located around the world) is that anyone who opposes their "science" is a crackpot, mentally deranged, or a front man for the service-station conspiracy. 

But the recent resignation of top physicist Harold Lewis from the American Physical Society, rendered in protest of the society's acceptance of global warming "science," and the protests of other respected scientists, have demolished that myth, at least among those who read.

Now a ranking Australian scientist warns us against the artificial panic.  From London's Express:

TRYING to halt global warming is a waste of time – we should simply adapt to it, a leading climate expert claimed yesterday.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is an “illusory goal”, said Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University, Australia.

He said that CO2 – emitted by burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas – is a “minor” greenhouse gas. And he argued that the past decade has seen a “lack of warming” and that no significant warming has occurred since 1958...

...He told Lord Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation: “Despite an estimated spend of more than £64billion since 1990 looking for a human global temperature signal, assessed against geological reality, no compelling empirical evidence yet exists for a measurable, let alone worrisome, human impact on global average temperature.

COMMENT:  I wonder what will happen to this guy's career.   Will they send him for reeducation?  Psychological testing? 

If our president was astute - a question mark there - he would appoint a blue-ribbon commission, similar to the panel that investigated the Challenger disaster, to get to the bottom of the global warming controversy.  Oh, actually we're supposed to use the term "climate change" if we want to be invited to a proper Georgetown party.

With increasing Republican power in Washington, I suspect that we'll have a more deliberate approach to warming than we've seen in the ultra-trendy Obama administration.  The science is rickety.

December 1, 2010       Permalink

SOME TAKE IT SERIOUSLY – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  While most our mainstream media seems indifferent to plugging the leak that led to this week's massive damage to our diplomatic security, London's Telegraph reports on the furious reactions of some of our defense experts:

Leading US political figures have called for the death penalty to be imposed on the person who leaked sensitive documents to whistle-blower website WikiLeaks as anger intensified against those responsible for the international relations crisis.

Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and ex-Pentagon official KT McFarland were among those claiming the guilty party should face execution for putting national security at risk by leaking the inflammatory information.

Mr Huckabee, who is believed to be ready to renew his candidacy for the next presidential election, said responsible for the leak should be sentenced to death.

He said: “They’ve put American lives at risk ... They put relationships that will take decades to rebuild at risk. They knew full well that they were handling sensitive documents, they were entrusted.

"Any lives they endangered, they’re personally responsible for and the blood is on their hands.”

KT McFarland, who held national security posts under the Nixon, Ford and Reagan governments, backed the calls, saying Private Bradley Manning – the chief suspect of leaking the files – should face treason charges and possible execution...

I was with KT last night at the Churchill party, and she is livid over this.

...Writing on the Fox News website, Ms McFarland said: "It's time to up the charges. Let's charge him and try him for treason. If he's found guilty, he should be executed."

She also called for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face terror charges, claiming: "He’s waging cyberwar on the United States and the global world order. Mr. Assange and his fellow hackers are terrorists and should be prosecuted as such."

COMMENT:  And it's time for a major congressional investigation into this whole matter.  We depend on our security services to protect us.  It would be nice if they could protect our national secrets. 

As for the American soldier suspected of being the source, he is a PFC (private first class).  How did a man with such a modest rank get hold of this stuff?  Clearly, there was some electronic breach.  If Manning can do it, foreign enemies can do it.

December 1, 2010       Permalink

THE OTHER ONE WHO THOUGHT HE WAS GOD SPEAKS – AT 8:12 A.M. ET:  Jimmah Carter has advice for President Obama.  Of course, Jimmah has advice for everyone. But his advice to Obama seems like an opening class in how to be a kamikaze.  From The Politico:

Jimmy Carter wants to see President Barack Obama drop his efforts at bipartisanship during the next two years, and he thinks Obama will heed his call.

“In the next two years, President Obama will be much more independent in fighting hard to prevail and not trying to reach out,” the former president said in an interview with CBS News. “I think he’ll be a much more tough proponent of what he stands for in the future, giving up on Republicans’ support and taking his case to the American public.”

Wait.  Didn't he try that already?  Is Carter reading the same papers?

Meanwhile, Carter will meet with Obama next Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed.

Carter had planned to meet with White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon when Obama asked Carter to stop by for a meeting, Gibbs told reporters on Tuesday.

I guess Carter got the upgrade because he had enough points on his American Express card. 

The president is wasting his time.  The country wasted its time.  Carter is a zero.

December 1, 2010     Permalink