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DECEMBER 11, 2010

TERROR IN SWEDEN? – AT 9:33 P.M. ET:  There's been a small terror attack in Sweden, a country that has done handstands to appease the Muslim world.  From The New York Times:

STOCKHOLM — One man was killed and two other people were injured when two explosions hit the heart of Stockholm’s city-center shopping district on Saturday evening, the police in the Swedish capital said. The country’s foreign minister called the blasts a terrorist attack, and an e-mail to news organizations minutes before the blasts seemed to link them to anger over anti-Islamic cartoons and the war in Afghanistan.

The police said that a car parked near the busy shopping street of Drottninggatan exploded first, shortly before 5 p.m. Stockholm time, and that the wreckage of the vehicle included gas canisters. A second blast followed minutes later, and about 200 yards from the first. A man’s body, with blast injuries to his abdomen, was discovered after the second explosion...

...An editor at the Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra, Dan Skeppe, said the agency had received an e-mail minutes before the blasts; it was also addressed to Sweden’s security police, and included a sound recording addressed to “Sweden and the Swedish people.” Mr. Skeppe said the recording cited Swedish “silence” over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad drawn by the artist Lars Vilks, criticized Sweden’s 500-soldier military contingent in northern Afghanistan and threatened attacks on Swedes.

COMMENT:  Sweden has had an awful problem with Muslims who refuse to integrate into Swedish society.  There have been electoral signs in recent years that Swedish tolerance has begun to wane.  It will be instructive to see if this incident hurries the process, or whether the Swedish left comes out of the woodwork to try to find the "root cause" of the terror act – a code term for "blame America and Israel."

December 11, 2010       Permalink

HERE COME THE JOKES.  LAUGH NOW, PUNDITS – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  Sarah Palin may have some travel plans:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is planning a foreign trip sometime next year, providing an opportunity to boost her presidential prospects, POLITICO has confirmed.

Details of the trip, including the timing, have not yet been worked out. But Palin sources confirm that plans are being considered for foreign travel in the new year, with Israel and Britain at the top of the list.

The likelihood of such a trip was first reported by the Daily Beast.

Palin’s staff told POLITICO in June that she was hoping visit former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during a potential trip.

Potential presidential contenders frequently plan highly publicized foreign trips ahead of announcing runs as a forum to boost their foreign policy credentials.

The move could be an opportunity for the Republican former vice presidential nominee to bolster any perceived weaknesses as a candidate. She has little travel experience on her resume, and GOP insiders worry that she’s weak on issues outside of her comfort zone.

COMMENT:  The insiders have a point.  Sarah simply has to expand her horizons and publicly demonstrate mastery of issues.  A foreign trip, preceded by months of study and briefings, will be helpful, especially if she makes some good, strong speeches across the pond.  Remember that her acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican convention was a winner.  She can do it. 

It is perfectly clear that she's preparing for a run.  I have mixed feelings about that.  But if she jumps in, and does it well, I'll be cheering.  I suspect that much of America will be as well.

December 11, 2010      Permalink

THE PRESS CONFERENCE – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:   Have you heard about it?  Did you see it?  I saw it live on TV – what will go down as the most famous, and most bizarre press conference by a president since Bill Clinton announced that "I did not have sex with that woman..."

And again, Clinton was the star.  Although this time he wasn't the president.

It happened yesterday, just after Mr. Obama met with former President Clinton, soliciting Clinton's support for the tax compromise.  The two had a press conference, and Clinton quickly took over.  The contrast between the two men was stark:  Clinton the master, Obama the awkward disciple.  Clinton has the capacity to think on his feet, without a teleprompter.  He has the capacity to explain and convince, without turning into a dull philosopher.

And he gave his reasons for supporting the tax package.  At one point – this is what you've probably seen on TV – Obama announced that he'd kept the first lady waiting a half hour, and he just left.  It was weird.  He, not Clinton, is the president, and he left the entire job to Clinton.  Even if he was sincere in wanting to get to a White House Christmas party and join Ms. Obama, it looked as if he were yielding to the better man, and withdrawing.

Bill Clinton then continued the press conference for another half hour. 

What can one say?  The president of the United States has some serious problems.  At the same time, he is showing some signs of maturity and understanding in his tax compromise.  Is bringing in Clinton a sign that Mr. Obama is "triangulating," trying to be the center force between Democrats and Republicans?  That was, in fact, Clinton's strategy as he approached the 1996 president election, which he won handily against Bob Dole. 

We'll look for more evidence, especially in foreign policy, where Mr. Obama is increasingly being ignored by foreign nations.  If we see some strength and decisiveness by the United States, an embrace of our allies and a defiance of our enemies, we'll know some positive change is in the air.  We hope, for the country's sake, that it happens.  But Obama starts out much further to the left than Clinton was.  We ask to be convinced.

December 11, 2010      Permalink 

WASHINGTON ARTS NEWS – AT 10:07 A.M. ET:  It's a pleasure to report that some of our senators have a healthy sense of humor.  From The Politico:

It was a bipartisan-ish affair on Thursday night at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Twelve female senators (three Republicans, nine Democrats) came to see Chicago comedy troupe The Second City perform "A Girl’s Guide to Washington Politics," which includes a roasting of many female pols including Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Nancy Pelosi.

In attendance: Sens. Claire McCaskill, Olympia Snowe, Blanche Lincoln, Maria E. Cantwell, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Mikulski, Debbie Stabenow, Jeanne Shaheen, Susan Collins, Kay Hagan, Amy Klobuchar and Lisa Murkowski.

COMMENT:  Good for the women.  Laughter never hurts, and I'm biased toward Second City, as it originally had a connection with the University of Chicago, which I attended. 

I note the absence from the list of one Barbara Boxer.  She's not much fun anyway.

December 11, 2010     Permalink

DECEMBER 10, 2010

WAPO TRIUMPHS – AT 10:29 A.M. ET:  I'm glad to see that Ronald Kessler, at the conservative NewsMax site, is giving the Washington Post the credit it deserves for improving its product.  (We give credit where it's due here.) 

For years the Post was in steady decline, acting as a junior partner to The New York Times in trying to be a liberal mouthpiece, and not only on its editorial pages.  But, under a refreshingly new management, it is returning to its earlier tradition as a fair and balanced newspaper.  There is still a way to go – a culture dies hard – but the progress is clear.  There is no similar progress at The Times, and there probably won't be until the current publisher is forced to walk the plank or goes through a religious conversion.

Kessler praises WaPo for a stinging editorial debunking a new, leftist Hollywood movie (Is there any other kind?) on the Valerie Plame affair:

Saying the movie is “full of distortions — not to mention outright inventions,” the Dec. 3 editorial refutes the claim by former State Department diplomat Joe Wilson, Plame’s husband, that he “debunked a Bush administration claim that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the African country of Niger.”

In fact, the editorial says, an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found that Wilson’s reporting “did not affect the intelligence community’s view on the matter, and an official British investigation found that President George W. Bush’s statement in a State of the Union address that Britain believed that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger was well-founded.”

The editorial slams the couple’s story that Plame’s exposure as a CIA operative was the result of a White House conspiracy.

“A lengthy and wasteful investigation by a special prosecutor found no such conspiracy — but it did confirm that the prime source of a newspaper column identifying Ms. Plame was a State Department official, not a White House political operative,” the editorial says.

The editorial notes that the film’s reception illustrates a troubling trend in political debates in Washington, where “established facts are willfully ignored.”

COMMENT:  One reason they're ignored is that too many journalists attended colleges where they were taught that "there's no such thing as truth," that it's just a "cultural construct."  Lies are too often called "alternative narratives."  It is an Orwellian universe. 

The Washington Post is, today, a better paper than The Times, and its editorial page is vastly superior.  Changes in leadership, like changes of command in the military, can produce dramatic results.  And sometimes the results are heartening.

December 10, 2010      Permalink

WITH EYES ON 2012 – AT 9:27 A.M. ET:  You can be sure that every initiative taken by this president will be launched with an eye on 2012.  That's pretty normal politics for any president.  And there is a chance that Obama will maneuver to the center, making clear to his leftist base that a new day has dawned, and that he must do what a politician must do.

Obama has a major meeting with Bill Clinton coming up, and they won't simply be comparing Christmas recipes.  Clinton maneuvered to starboard after he took an Obama-style shellacking in the 1994 congressional midterms.  He went on to win easy reelection in 1996. 

Obama is already moving to make taxes his issue, rather than ceding it to the GOP, as The Wall Street Journal reports:

President Barack Obama has instructed his economic team to draft options to close loopholes and lower income-tax rates ahead of what would be a multi-year effort to overhaul and simplify the U.S. tax code, administration officials said Thursday.

Lowering corporate tax rates could give the administration the opportunity to build an alliance with business leaders, though it would likely depend on which tax breaks officials propose to eliminate.

White House aides cautioned that the effort was in its infancy. But in the wake of last week's report from his presidential deficit commission, a broad tax overhaul has been pushed toward the front of the discussion as members of both parties try to find a way to bring down the $1.3 trillion budget deficit with minimal pain.

"The president has long said that reforming the tax system is a priority, and the bipartisan fiscal commission recently made recommendations that he will consider as part of the budget process," said White House Deputy Communications Director Jen Psaki. "But he is not considering specific policy proposals, and no decisions have been made about whether this is a priority he will push for in the near future."

The debt commission proposed ending certain tax breaks, known as tax expenditures, that allow many corporations and individuals to minimize their tax burdens. By attacking such loopholes, the commission concluded tax rates could be lowered while still bringing in more revenue to the Treasury.

COMMENT:  There are disturbing reports that some incoming Republican congressmen are rushing to abandon their campaign pledges and returning to the old earmark system of filling money bills with special-interest favors.  And Republicans, if only temporarily, blocked federal aid to 9-11 workers sickened by conditions at the attack sites as they worked to clear the rubble.  While these funds will probably be released, the headlines did the GOP's image no good as it worked to insure continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the very comfortable.

Obama's move toward possible reform of the tax system may be very shrewd.  Historically, Republicans have been monumentally inept in explaining some of their domestic positions, especially as regards taxes and assisting people in need.  It is one of the reasons why polls showed that, while the Democrats were defeated last month, the Republicans were hardly embraced.  The party has a poor image, a greedy image, whether deserved or not.  If Obama can exploit that image by proposing popular changes in the tax system, he can pin the GOP to the wall. 

Do not count Obama out in 2012.  His fight with his own base over the tax compromise with Republicans will probably help him with the broad center of American politics.  And where would his base go for a presidential candidate on election day, 2012?  Lenin is dead and the head of Wikileaks is in prison.  Both are unavailable and poorly funded.

And blacks, for understandable reasons of group solidarity, will back Obama in 2012 even if he tries to switch the national anthem to "Dixie."  Although I doubt if he will. 

Charles Krauthammer believes that Obama won a great victory in his tax negotiations with Republicans, because what emerged is really a new stimulus plan that he couldn't get through the newly elected Congress if he called it that.  While the blurry-brained left may not realize that Obama did quite well in his talks with the GOP, the president himself will know how to claim the credit.

No, don't count him out.

December 10, 2010       Permalink

NUTBAG PROVES IT ONCE AGAIN – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  Ron Paul, the "Republican" (not really) congressman from Texas, and father of newly elected senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, demonstrates once again why we have a right to worry about issues of sanity in some elected officials.  From John Hinderaker at Power Line:

Attentive readers may have noticed that I am no admirer of Ron Paul. In fact, I once dubbed him the Pee-Wee Herman of the Republican Party. Paul illustrates, in my view, the dark side of libertarianism. The Achilles heel of Paul's brand of libertarianism is foreign policy. You could describe him as an isolationist, but I think he is worse than that: during the Bush administration, his antiwar rhetoric took on a vicious quality.

Today Paul showed once again why he is outside of the conservative mainstream. The House of Representatives voted 402-1 to congratulate Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo on her Nobel peace prize. The one congressman who voted no was Ron Paul.

Was the vote purely symbolic? Of course; which makes Paul's no vote even worse. For an American politician not to favor freedom and democracy abroad, even in principle, is simply perverse.

COMMENT:  It certainly is.  Ron Paul is a true RINO (Republican in name only).  While the term is normally applied to Republicans who tilt too far to the left, in Paul's case the tilt is too far to the nutbag regions of the delusional right.

Because of seniority, Paul will chair a subcommittee in the new House dealing with the Federal Reserve, whose existence he opposes.  But Paul's potential for damage lies mostly in foreign policy, where he has been an extreme isolationist, and has defended terrorism against the United States, claiming it's our fault.  There is an old notion in political science that the extreme left and the extreme right meet at some point, and Paul's foreign-policy positions are uncomfortably close to those we find on the Marxist left.

And all that makes us wonder about the true views of his son, just elected to the Senate from Kentucky.  Under pressure, Rand Paul made some responsible noises on foreign policy during his campaign, but I have the gut feeling that he's a chip off the old blockhead.  There is still an isolationist fringe in the Republican Party that apparently learned nothing from the isolationist disaster of the 1930s.  I'm afraid we'll be hearing from this crowd again.  There may not be enough straitjackets to go around.

December 10, 2010     Permalink

STRAIGHTEN UP AND FLY RIGHT – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  More reassuring reports from your federal government, from Fox News:

The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.

The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government's knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.

About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have "questionable registration" because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA. In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or has been junked.

Already there have been cases of drug traffickers using phony U.S. registration numbers, as well as instances of mistaken identity in which police raided the wrong plane because of faulty record-keeping.

COMMENT:  President Kennedy once called the State Department "a bowl of jelly."  The FAA is a bowl of mush.  The agency has a legendarily poor reputation, especially for installing and using new technology.  This new report will not fill us with confidence.  The skies may be friendly, but they're not as safe as they can be with the FAA in charge of aircraft record keeping.

And what will be done about it?  Very little, over a long period of time.

December 10, 2010     Permalink