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.

SUNDAY,  FEBRUARY 21,  2010

WHERE'S THAT CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN? – AT 8:31 P.M. ET:  Apparently, Government Motors won't be run any differently than General Motors:

NEW YORK (AP) -- General Motors Co. CEO Ed Whitacre will receive a salary of $1.7 million this year, plus stock awards that will bring his total pay package to $9 million at a later date, the automaker said Friday.

On the basis of what?

In a surprise announcement, GM also said former CEO Fritz Henderson has been rehired as a consultant. Henderson, who was forced out of the job in December, will work 20 hours a month and will be paid $59,090 a month, the company said.

The company is laying off thousands, and a man gets almost $60,000 to work 20 hours?  Do they really need him that badly, or did he play golf with the right guy?

This is the kind of thing that discredits the enterprise system.  It's an embarrassment, one of many these days. 

Whitacre's total compensation is larger than Henderson's when he was CEO. Henderson received a total pay package worth nearly $5.5 million.

Whitacre's pay package includes a cash salary of $1.7 million that took effect Jan. 1. It also includes $5.3 million in stock awarded in increments starting in 2012, plus another stock award worth $2 million. The details, including the timing, of the $2 million stock award still need to be worked out, a GM spokeswoman said.

GM is 60 percent owned by the federal government and has received $52 billion in federal aid. The company plans to repay as much of the money as possible by issuing stock to the public, possibly as early as this year.

Wall Street is going back to the same obscene practices that helped lead to the financial crisis.  Apparently, GM wants to do the same.  Their lobbyists in Washington must be doing their jobs very well. 

If free enterprise is destroyed, it won't be because of the efforts of clownish, incompetent socialists, waving around their copies of Howard Zinn's fictional "A People's History..."  It will be because of public revulsion toward indefensible practices.

There used to be a saying that there's room in business for bulls and bears, but not for pigs.  Apparently, plenty of room has been made for the pigs.

February 21, 2010    Permalink

THAT STRAW POLL – AT 7:29 P.M. ET:  There's much buzz on the internet, and much revulsion, over the fact that certifiable nutbag Ron Paul won the straw poll for president at the CPAC convention in Washington.

However, reader Bob Gilkison points out, and others confirm, that only about 25% of the participants in the convention actually voted in the poll, which eases the pain of the result.   

However, let me stress that things like this poll, even when correctly explained, still do damage.  We're not playing on a level field.  The mainstream media will cover for the lunatic fringe on the left, but it will magnify the off-kilter types on the right.  We just have to be more careful than the other side.

February 21, 2010   Permalink

ENOUGH ALREADY! – AT 6:15 P.M. ET:  I have just been named president of the PBWP, a national organization whose letters stand for People Bored With Powell.  It's true that I'm the only member, but others may join.

I'm sure Colin Powell was a fine soldier.  But, as a political figure, he's endlessly boring.  And his disloyalty to those who gave him high office is revolting.  He apparently considers himself lofty and above us all, something of an elder statesman.  In fact, he was never much of a statesman at all.

Now Powell is back, still claiming to be a Republican, but doing all he can to advance the other party and ridicule his own.  From the Washington Post:

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said former Vice President Dick Cheney's claims that President Obama's policies are putting the nation at risk have no basis, especially since most of the programs and procedures the Bush administration enacted have been continued or heightened under the Obama tenure.

Programs like going around the world apologizing for the United States?  Programs like trying the mastermind of 9-11 in a residential neighborhood of New York?  Procedures like putting a deadline on our action in Afghanistan, giving the enemy a useful timeline?  Procedures like giving Iran one deadline after another, then ignoring them? 

I don't recall those being Bush programs and procedures.

Asked about progress in Iraq, Powell, who championed the invasion as secretary of state, said history will be the ultimate judge of events there.

If the man had such contempt for the administration he served, why didn't he resign on principle?  And he should have offered a vigorous defense of our Iraq action, which, at minimum, removed a regionally dangerous regime.

He cautioned fellow conservatives who call President Obama a socialist, saying rough-and-tumble politics is nothing new, but to constantly criticize without attempting to offer new ideas is not productive.

"Fellow conservatives"?  Is that what the writer actually wrote?  I don't recall the last time Powell uttered a conservative word. 

"Have we so lost our faith in this country that we think one person, one man, can suddenly change our entire system?" Powell asked. "That's kind of absurd."

No, but one man with the help of Congress can wreck a good part of the building. 

Secretary Powell, you are not being helpful.

February 21, 2010   Permalink

CHEER AMERICA – AT 12:18 A.M. ET:  Hey, have you been watching the Olympics?  Our kids are doing spectacularly well, despite gloomy predictions:

America is delivering an Olympics beating that nobody saw coming.

The U.S. won as many medals on Wednesday—six—as it won during the entirety of the 1988 Games in Calgary, Alberta.

The 20 medals that America had won through Friday afternoon at the Vancouver Games represent far more than half of its greatest Winter Olympics haul ever—the 34 that it garnered during the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Once the poor sisters of the Winter Games, once pressed to explain why a country with so much money and the greatest snow on earth couldn't dominate the slipping-and-sliding sports, America is on the verge of turning Vancouver into a romp.

Let's boast a little.  No more apologies.  Get that, White House?

Perhaps most impressive is that America is winning medals in traditional sports often dominated by Europeans, such as alpine skiing, figure skating and long-course speedskating. Noting that the number of Winter Olympics events has risen to 86 from 46 in Calgary, Olympic historian David Wallechinsky said, "We're expected to do well in new events like freestyle skiing and snowboarding. But this week is not just a new-event phenomenon for the U.S."

Never sell America short.  That is the message.  Of course, our past winter Olympics problems were caused by BUSH (!!).

February 21, 2010   Permalink

EXPOSING THE WARMERS – AT 10:49 A.M. ET:  George Will, who's been quite good recently, writes one of the best columns I've read about the global-warming controversy:

Science, many scientists say, has been restored to her rightful throne because progressives have regained power. Progressives, say progressives, emulate the cool detachment of scientific discourse. So hear the calm, collected voice of a scientist lavishly honored by progressives, Rajendra Pachauri.

He is chairman of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 version of the increasingly weird Nobel Peace Prize. Denouncing persons skeptical about the shrill certitudes of those who say global warming poses an imminent threat to the planet, he says:

"They are the same people who deny the link between smoking and cancer. They are people who say that asbestos is as good as talcum powder -- and I hope they put it on their faces every day."

Do not judge him as harshly as he speaks of others. Nothing prepared him for the unnerving horror of encountering disagreement.

That is, of course, the point.  The warmers are involved as much in political science as actual science, if not more so.  They are shocked that anyone could possibly disagree with them.  These are the kind of people who'd put their College Board scores on their gravestones.

And there is this gem from Will:

Last week, Todd Stern, America's special envoy for climate change -- yes, there is one; and people wonder where to begin cutting government -- warned that those interested in "undermining action on climate change" will seize on "whatever tidbit they can find." Tidbits like specious science, and the absence of warming?

It is tempting to say, only half in jest, that Stern's portfolio violates the First Amendment, which forbids government from undertaking the establishment of religion. A religion is what the faith in catastrophic man-made global warming has become. It is now a tissue of assertions impervious to evidence, assertions that everything, including a historic blizzard, supposedly confirms and nothing, not even the absence of warming, can falsify.

COMMENT:  Wonderfully stated.  One of the tragedies of this controversy, and the revelations of sloppiness and falsification on the warming side, is that it has shaken Americans' respect for science.  If some in the scientific establishment would get their noses out of the air for a few moments, they'd realize what a decline in respect can mean for the funding of their disciplines, and do something about it...fast.

February 21, 2010   Permalink

AND THERE'S MORE POLLING NEWS – AT 10:34 A.M. ET:  Since we're giving the bad polling news about Obama, let's pile on.   The president has been particularly popular among young voters, but that advantage seems to be fading, as Politics Daily reports:

One of the factors the fueled the resurgence of the Democrats in the 2006 midterms and particularly President Obama's 2008 campaign was the enthusiastic backing of the "Millennial" generation -- voters between 18 and 29. But a Pew Research Center study says that the Democrats' advantage over Republicans with this group has dramatically shrunk from a 32 point margin in 2008 to 14 points.

These numbers include both those who identify with one of the two parties, or lean towards one or the other.

And...

The Democrats in 2008 led Republicans among these young voters in party affiliation by 62 percent to 30 percent, a margin now down to 54 percent to 40 percent.

Pew adds the caveat that the Republican gains do not include a significant rise in the number (22 percent) of Millenials who identify as Republicans when leaners are excluded. The leaners accounted for most of the overall GOP gain, almost doubling from 8 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in December.

The Democrat's advantage among Millenials when leaners are not counted has also lessened, from a 41 percent to 28 percent margin 2008 to 36 percent to 24 percent.

COMMENT:  Maybe there's hope for the young yet, although I worry about what's put into their heads by our "educational" system.

February 21, 2010   Permalink

POLL STUNNER – AT 10:03 A.M. ET:  The sky is indeed falling.  Look up.  Watch it come down.  Rasmussen's daily tracker is today reporting this:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. That is the lowest level of strong approval yet recorded for this President.

I have to say that I'm surprised at that.  I never thought the "strongly approve" would go much below 30% because of the structure of the electorate.  This 22% number is a jolt.

Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19. The Approval Index has been lower only on one day during Barack Obama’s thirteen months in office (see trends). The previous low came on December 22 as the Senate was preparing to approve its version of the proposed health care legislation. The current lows come as the President is once again focusing attention on the health care legislation.

And...

Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove.

And get this:

Currently, 39% of voters nationwide favor the health care plan proposed by the President and Congressional Democrats. Fifty-eight percent (58%) are opposed. Only 35% believe Congress should pass health care reform before the upcoming midterm elections anyway. Fifty-four percent (54%) say Congress should wait until voters select new congressional representatives in November.

COMMENT:  Apparently the American people haven't seen change they can believe in.  We now hear that the Dems will try to push through their health plan in the face of overwhelming public opposition.  The last time we saw this mentality it was crashing planes into American ships off Okinawa.

February 21,  2010   Permalink

SATURDAY,  FEBRUARY 20,  2010

WILL THE INMATES TAKE OVER THE ASYLUM? – AT 7:14 P.M. ET:  We already reported on one disgraceful blunder by the people running the CPAC convention in Washington – allowing the execrable John Birch Society to be one of the sponsors. 

Now there's another embarrassment:

Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas Republican who ran a quixotic bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, was the top vote-getter in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s straw poll, capturing the support of 33 percent of those who participated in the contest.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who had won the CPAC straw poll for three consecutive years, took 22 percent of the vote. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won 7 percent and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty 6 percent. Pawlenty attended the conference; Palin did not.

Paul’s victory renders a straw poll that was already lightly contested among the likely 2012 GOP hopefuls all but irrelevant as the 74-year-old Texan is unlikely to be a serious contender for his party’s nomination.

Ron Paul is not a conservative.  He's a kook, a right-wing nut with fascistic leanings.  He is also, incredibly, an open, unashamed apologist for Osama bin Laden.  His website recently featured a tribute to a vile, pro-Hitler writer who'd just died.   

CPAC organizers were plainly embarrassed by the results, which could reduce the perceived impact of a contest that was once thought to offer a window into which White House hopefuls were favored by movement conservatives.

Well, at least they were embarrassed.  I guess they couldn't control who came to the convention, but maybe there should be mental health professionals on hand next time.

A spokesman for the conference rushed over to reporters following the announcement to make sure they had heard the unmistakable boos when the screen first showed Paul had won the straw poll.

This is the same old story.  William F. Buckley Jr. and Ronald Reagan fought against this craziness all their lives.  Through their efforts, the conservative movement largely freed itself from the extremists who'd held it back. 

I'm afraid we have some further work to do.

Many conservatives just don't comprehend the damage that the fringe can do.  Remember, the mainstream media covers for the extremists on the left.  I can cite you chapter and verse on how the media leaves out critical facts about leftist fringe operators.  But the media will never extend that courtesy to the right.  Every nut case will be brought front and center in news stories and TV reports. 

Look at what was emphasized at tea party rallies.  Thousands of responsible people showed up.  But if one guy had a crazy, threatening sign, it would make CNN.  A few days ago, when that suicide pilot crashed his plane into a building in Texas, some commentators actually linked his views to that of the tea partiers, even though there was no link whatsoever.

One of the most noble things you can do in life is to keep your movement honest and clean.  A movement, or a party, can be a big tent, but it cannot be an infinite tent.

I wrote at Angel's Corner last night about the danger of extremism on the right.  It didn't take very long for some nuts at the CPAC convention to prove the point.

Hard work ahead.  A lot hangs in the balance.

February 20, 2010   Permalink

EMBARRASSMENT, AND HYPOCRISY – AT 6:50 P.M. ET:  Some people do dumb things, and others do fatal things.  From the New York Daily News:

A snowboard bronze medalist from New Hampshire is kissing the Olympics goodbye after risque photos emerged of a girl kissing his medal hello.

Halfpipe boarder Scotty Lago volunteered to leave the Vancouver Games amidst the sneers of Olympic officials reacting to photos of a girl kissing his medal - which was affixed to his pants and covering his crotch.

There was a second photo of Lago holding the medal in his hand as the attractive young woman bit down on it as if to prove the authenticity of the bronze, while teammate Greg Bretz looked on.

Dressed in a "Team USA" T-shirt, Lago was photographed at a party following his award ceremony Thursday night.

He apologized Friday to the U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, and decided it was best to pack his bags before the closing ceremonies.

COMMENT:  Clearly inappropriate behavior, and leaving the games was the right thing to do.

Meanwhile, a luger from Georgia was killed in a training accident on a course that had drawn repeated complaints over safety for months.  Anyone punished? 

The Olympics are like the mainstream media.  They'll correct a small mistake, but rarely a big one.  When there's a full, satisfactory investigation of the louger's death, and why the Olympics ignored all the warnings, then we'll talk about racy pictures.

February 20, 2010   Permalink

PLEASE MAKE A CASH CONTRIBUTION – AT 6:22 P.M. ET:  I know that all of you will have your checkbooks out by the time you finish this story about the latest act of unfairness toward an Illinois politician:

SPRINGFIELD — Ex-Gov. George Ryan won't get to collect his state pension as he sits in an Indiana federal prison, a decision his attorney former Gov. Jim Thompson called "deeply disappointing" because the once-affable cigar-smoking old-school Republican "has nothing."

Hilarious if it weren't so sad:  One governor is lawyer for another.  Nothing like an intimate club to warm the heart.  And now the facts:

But Ryan already has raked in $635,000 from Illinois taxpayers in the three-plus years between his retirement and his major political corruption conviction, a top pension official said. Ryan also got a refund of $235,500 when his pension was taken away — the amount of personal contributions he made during his more than 30 years in public office.

Please note that this is the Illinois political class's definition of "nothing."

The pension payments run counter to the sympathetic image Thompson is trying to cultivate for Ryan, who turns 76 on Wednesday, faces at least three more years in prison and is hoping President Barack Obama will grant his request for freedom.

Now watch.  Obama will seek legal advice from Bill Clinton.  Uh, wait, Clinton was disbarred.  Eric Holder?  Uh, no, Eric can't get anything right and wants to try terrorists in New York neighborhoods.  Janet Reno?  Well...no, she's too creepy to be alive. 

I know:  The president should go to that law firm that advertises low rates on TV.  What is it?  Legal Zoom dot com?  He'll probably do a lot better there.

Of course, he could contact someone who's a real expert on the inner workings of Illinois politics.  But they're all in jail.

I'd love to see how this turns out.

February 20,  2010   Permalink

ANOTHER DISGRACE – AT 11:15 A.M. ET:  At last night's Angel's Corner I wrote about the conservative resurgence and what, to me at least, was the basic cause – a belief that our basic institutions have broken down, and are in desperate need of renewal.

But I also warned that this resurgence could collapse if influenced by extremists and crackpots, who must be shown the door, and then some.  No movement can prosper unless it is disciplined and sane. 

Sadly, we've just learned of a serious breach, reported by my friend, Scott Johnson, at Power Line.  It seems that a co-sponsor of this week's CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference ) convention in Washington is the John Birch Society.  For those too young to recall, the JBS is an extremist, right-wing (not conservative) club made up of deranged clowns who did severe damage to the conservative movement in the late fifties and early sixties.

William F. Buckley Jr. crusaded against the Birchers, who, among other things, argued that Dwight Eisenhower was a Communist agent.  He was joined in this fight against nuttery by leading conservatives, including Barry Goldwater.  And for years the Birchers were essentially banned from respectable conservative gatherings.

Now they're back.  Scott reports:

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is a great event attended by just about everybody who is anybody in the conservative movement. It also attracts a lot of college students who aspire to make a contribution to the movement.

ABC's Jonathan Karl reports that this year's CPAC event was co-sponsored, unbelievably to me, by the John Birch Society. Karl quotes some of Buckley's characteristically vibrant denunciations of the JBS. "Two years after Buckley's death," Karl observes, "the John Birch Society is no longer banished; it is listed as one of about 100 co-sponsors of the 2010 CPAC."

Karl reasonably asks: "Why is the Birch Society a co-sponsor?"

"They're a conservative organization," according to Lisa Depasquale, the CPAC Director for the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC. "Beyond that," she told Karl, "I have no comment."

Additional comment is required, and if Depasquale will not provide it, I will. This is a disgrace.

The John Birch affiliation must go.  Immediately.  Right now.  This is just the kind of thing that can cripple the conservative resurgence.   It did so before.

February 20, 2010   Permalink

THE DISGRACE – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:  This man should never have been appointed in the first place.  He's another proof that, despite slogans to the contrary, this is an administration of the real left.  From the Politico:

President Barack Obama’s new Islamic envoy, Rashad Hussain, changed course Friday – admitting he made sharply critical statements about a U.S. terror prosecution against a Muslim professor after initially saying he had no recollection of making such comments.

“I made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated,” Hussain said, referring to a 2004 conference where he discussed the case.

He obviously lied about the "no recollection" statement, and should be fired like a shot. 

Hussain’s reversal came after POLITICO obtained a recording of his presentation to a Muslim students’ conference in Chicago, where he can be heard portraying the government’s cases towards professor Sami Al-Arian, as well as other Muslim terrorism suspects, as “politically motivated persecutions.” Al-Arian later pled guilty to aiding terrorists.

The comments touched off criticism from conservative commentators, who questioned whether someone who held those views should represent the United States in the Muslim world.

The question is whether someone who held those views should be president of the United States.

Hussain was a White House counsel, with access to classified information. 

The White House declined to say Friday whether the statements or the controversy affected Obama’s confidence in Hussain.

Hussain also answered another question surrounding his comments – why they were removed from the website of a magazine on Middle East issues that published a brief account of the panel back in 2004, attributing the statement about “politically motivated persecutions” to Hussain.

It was Hussain himself, he said Friday, who contacted the publication to complain about the story.

We'll follow this.  Hussain must go, but that might "offend" the Democratic left.  Obama needs some backbone on the issue.  There are plenty of others who can represent us to the Muslim world, as if the job will really produce results.

February 20, 2010   Permalink

SAD, AND WITH PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  The White House and its leftist allies may not care, as democracy has been downgraded as an American cause in the era of Obama. 

But others do care that the Iranian resistance movement has all but collapsed.  Major anti-government demonstrations planned for February 11th never materialized.  We'd hoped that a collapse of the mullah regime would send Iran on a new course, mitigating the crisis involving its nuclear-weapons program.  From The Washington Post:

After their planned show of strength largely fizzled Feb. 11 in the face of heavy security for state-sponsored celebrations of the Islamic revolution's 31st anniversary, activists in Iran's political opposition have been left demoralized, wondering how to revive a movement that many hoped would lead to a more open society, greater personal freedoms and fairer elections.

They certainly got no encouragement from Washington.  Democracy was a BUSH (!!) notion, therefore not very important to the current administration.

Those attending the dissidents' get-together contemplated the reasons for their defeat as they sought to answer the question, "What now?" Some admitted that they had been afraid to join anti-government protests scheduled to coincide with the anniversary rallies. Others said they had tried to go but faced thousands of armed security forces who blocked streets. All agreed that the opposition's failure to make an impact during the state-backed demonstrations represented a huge blow for the grass-roots movement.

In this well-reported story, not one of the Iranian dissidents apparently said a word about Barack Hussein Obama, whom, we had been told during the 2008 campaign, had an affinity with young people in the "Third World." Not these young people.

...there was consensus on one issue. "Just because our protest failed, that doesn't mean we have lost our anger," the student said. "We have a very simple demand: freedom. But I don't see how we can get it."

COMMENT:  The Post has run a fine story.  But notice the absence of any passion in most of the mainstream media.  The media is composed of "journalists" who went into journalism, many of them, to "make a difference." Look at the difference they're making.

The failure, at least thus far, to budge the mullah regime, will strengthen its confidence as it confronts the West over nuclear weapons.  It's pretty clear it will get those weapons unless our side, led by Obama, takes some strong, maybe unpleasant action.  Obama doesn't seem to have the stomach.  If his attitude toward the freedom fighters is any guide, he doesn't have the passion either.

February 20, 2010   Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:09 A.M. ET:  President Obama's numbers in the Rasmussen poll have been remarkably steady in the last two months, but that's not good news for him.

They've been remarkably steady in a negative direction:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. That matches the lowest level of strong approval yet recorded for this President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17.

And...

Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) disapprove.

COMMENT:  This White House is a permanent campaign.  It's been stepped up in the last month (at our expense).  The president yesterday was on still one more campaign swing, but none of it seems to make a difference.

There appears to be, if the numbers are correct, a hardening of attitudes about this president.  Of course, some huge event can change his standing, but, after a year, he is hardly getting a vote of confidence.

February 20,  2010   Permalink