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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2010

DEM REVOLT GROWS – AT 8:11 P.M. ET:  Although neither Patrick henry nor John Hancock is available, other patriots are lining up to be heard in the Democratic revolt against Nancy Pelosi.  I think Pelosi's statements since the election – that nothing is really wrong – are energizing a party that realizes that the ship's compartments are being flooded, while the captain dines with the first-class passengers:

WASHINGTON – In a fresh sign of turmoil among defeated Democrats, a growing number of the rank and file say they won't support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a politically symbolic roll call when the new Congress meets in January.

"The reality is that she is politically toxic," said Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, one of several Democrats who are trying to pressure Pelosi to step aside as her party's leader in the wake of historic election losses to Republicans last week.

Pelosi startled many Democrats with a quick postelection announcement that she would run for minority leader. She has yet to draw an opponent for the post. Party elections are scheduled for next week, although a postponement is possible.

In the interim, Pelosi's critics have become more vocal in their efforts to retire her from the party leadership.

There's "starting to be a sense that this may not be as much of a done deal as people might have thought," Rep. Jason Altmire said of Pelosi's quest to remain the top Democrat.

COMMENT:  Since we're on the other side, we sincerely wish Speaker Pelosi good luck, and hope she wins.  Nothing would give us greater pleasure than to see her and Harry Reid...together again.  What a sequel.  That's what dreams are made of.

And while the Dems are at it, how about having Michael Dukakis and Jimmah Carter head up the party's Victory Committee. 

I feel, though, as a former Dem myself, for those brave Democrats who realize what's happening, and are trying to save their party from self-destruction, the way Ronald Reagan led a wandering GOP out of the wilderness.  I suspect, though, that the Dems will need an individual, not just a vague internal movement, to take them to the promised land.

November 10, 2010     Permalink

SAME OLD STUFF – AT 8:01 P.M. ET:  Bad ideas never die, and they don't even fade away.  They come back at "international conferences."   From Fox:

As President Obama huddles with world leaders for the G-20 summit in South Korea to weigh proposals aimed at stabilizing the global economy, one idea being pushed is a so-called "Robin Hood tax," aimed at collecting money from rich nations to give to the poor.

The Robin Hood tax -- a global financial transaction fee that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to pay the cost of the global financial crisis and support developing nations struggling to recover -- is not popular.

While Britain, France and Germany have championed a bank tax for all G-20 nations, finance chiefs from the industrialized nations shot down the idea at a previous summit held in Toronto last summer.

Still, the tax's supporters, which include unions, environmental groups, Comic Relief, UNICEF and others in a multinational coalition, say the tax could go to canceling debt from poor nations. Or it could be used for social programs to fight hunger, diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria or other causes, programs to which the United States and other nations already donate billions.

COMMENT:  Now, where do we begin?  Once again we're being told of the plight of "developing" nations.

Question:  How long does it take a nation to develop?  Some of these nations have been free of colonialism for 60 years, with little to show for it.  Some, like South Africa, are a complete disgrace, overridden by crime and corruption, while their "moral" leaders, like the vile Desmond Tutu, lecture the rest of the world. 

I've spoken to people who work in Africa who relate how you often have to pay a bribe to save a human life. 

And yet, we're gold to give more, more, more.  It reminds me of the domestic racket called "investment in education."  You know, we must "invest" in education.  Question:  Isn't that what we've been doing the last half century, or more? 

Before one dime is given to "developing" nations, we should demand a full accounting, with oversight bodies involved, of how our money is being spent, and why some societies, like India, are emerging, while others are not.  Some chance under this administration.

November 10, 2010      Permalink

NOT SO FAST, GOP – AT 10:23 A.M. ET:  Some of the smartest Republicans, and their supporters, are already warning the party that last week's election was not an embrace of the GOP, which remains unpopular, but a rejection of the Obama administration.  Republicans must build trust, and even affection.

A new warning comes from Scott Rasmussen, and should be taken seriously:

Voters have decidedly divided opinions about House Republican plans to investigate the Obama administration’s performance to date. GOP voters like the idea; Democrats don’t.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that 40% favor House GOP intentions to investigate the past actions of the current administration. Forty-four percent (44%) oppose such investigations, while 16% are not sure about them. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Sixty-six percent (66%) of Republican voters approve of the investigation plans, but 72% of Democrats are opposed to them. Voters not affiliated with either party are almost evenly divided over the idea.

Among all voters, 43% say House GOP plans to investigate are more about partisan policies than in making sure inappropriate or illegal things don’t happen again. An identical 43% think the plans are intended to make sure wrong things don’t reoccur.

COMMENT:  I don't want to see the Republican Party become what the Democratic Party has become – a bunch of vindictive investigators.  There may well be some investigations that are proper, and surely much greater oversight is required, especially oversight of the Justice Department and our foreign policy.  But endless investigations will simply turn off the American people.  In the midst of this deep recession, Americans want action and progress.

Republicans must establish themselves as the party of ideas.  They must come up with one imaginative proposal after the other, to position themselves for the 2012 campaign, which will soon be upon us.  Investigations are a second-tier priority.

November 10, 2010      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY - AT 9:46 A.M. ET:

A Muslim religious channel in Britain is being censored after allowing presenters on air to condone marital rape and violence toward women, and for calling women who wear perfume in mosques "prostitutes."  The U.K. Daily Mail reports that in one program, the host told viewers that it was “not strange” and “not such a big problem” for a man to force his wife to have sex.  The U.K.'s T.V. watchdog, Ofcom, ruled the Islam Channel breached the broadcasting code in five different programs between May 2008 and October 2009.

And they're finally taking action now, more than a year later?  I wonder how many women were abused as a result of these teachings in the year it took Britain's TV "watchdog" to start watching.  And I wonder where so-called "women's" groups were.  They're certainly silent here.

November 10, 2010     Permalink

GETTING SMART – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  The Congressional Black Caucus, whose leftist credentials have never been in doubt, has now come to its senses and says it will welcome the two new black Republicans elected to the House:

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) said this week it will welcome a pair of newly elected black Republicans if they wish to join.

“Membership in the Congressional Black Caucus has never been restricted to Democrats,” the group said in an unattributed e-mail to its members. “Should either of the two African-American Republicans recently elected to the House of Representatives request membership in the Congressional Black Caucus they will be welcomed.”...

...The announcement breaks the CBC’s silence on the possibility that GOP Reps.-elect Allen West (Fla.) and Tim Scott (S.C.) be allowed to join the overwhelmingly Democratic group. West has said he’ll seek membership, while Scott reportedly hasn’t decided.

The CBC’s message also seems to run counter to statements made last month by CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who told The Economist that, while the group is technically bipartisan, it also “has an agenda.”

“Our agenda is about lifting people out of poverty, providing middle-class tax cuts, supporting climate-change legislation,” she said. “Do [incoming black Republicans] embrace this agenda?”

COMMENT:  Next step for the CBC, in my view:  Dump Barbara Lee.  An extreme leftist and Castro supporter, Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against military action following the 9-11 attacks.  And yet, that didn't count against her in the CBC, which shows just how far left that body is.  (It is a reflection of the Marxist influence on the civil rights movement, which is one of those unmentionable issues.)

West has said he wants to join, Scott is undecided. 

Do you know Allen West, the retired Army lieutenant colonel?  He's about as dynamic and blunt a man as you can find, a man whose personality says "win" all the way.  I'd love to be there when he goes to his first CBC meeting, and confronts the old, worn-out ideologists.  The guy's got guts, but we already knew that.

November 10, 2010      Permalink

THE LOOMING ISSUE – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  Foreign governments watch our election results very carefully.  The looming issue for Obama is Iran, and Iran is making it very clear the issue will continue to loom:

"Iran is ready to hold talks on resolving international problems, establishing peace and security in the world," says Iranian president.

Iran is not prepared to discuss the "nuclear issue" with world powers, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the central Iranian city of Qazvin on Wednesday.

According to a Press TV report, Ahmadinejad told gathered supporters:

"Iran is ready to hold talks on equal conditions to help settle ongoing problems, ease international concerns and establish peace and security in the world."

He reportedly continued: "We have repeatedly said that our (nuclear) rights are not negotiable ... We only hold talks to resolve international problems ... to help the establishment of peace."

On Tuesday, Iran responded to reports that it had agreed to meet with the "5+1" group later this month by saying that it absolutely would not be discussing a nuclear fuel swap.

COMMENT:  So what, pray, is there to talk about?  It's like, "Nazi leader Adolf Hitler told Prime Minister Churchill today that Germany would discuss bringing peace and security to the world, but that its intention to destroy Britain from the air was non-negotiable."

The trouble is that the Europeans are jumping at the chance for "more talks" with Iran, since that means not doing much, and the U.S. has been utterly passive during this period, also saying that it welcomed more talks.

At some point in the next few years, Iran is likely to have a nuclear weapons capacity.  A number of top Republicans are saying that only a credible threat of military force will stop the Iranians.  The administration has made it clear it has no intention of issuing that threat.

Another case where Obama's foreign policy can be marked, "no results."

November 10, 2010      Permalink

AND IN ALASKA – AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  The election still isn't over.  There is still one Senate seat to be decided, and it's in Alaska.

The contest is between Joe Miller, who won the Republican primary, and incumbent GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, who, after losing the primary, ran as a write-in Republican.  The Politico reports the latest:

Republican Joe Miller gained ground in the Senate race Tuesday, cutting into the vote lead for write-in candidates – most of which, presumably, are for Sen. Lisa Murkowski – by about 2,100 votes.

Miller had 35 percent of the vote and write-in candidates collectively had 40 percent, after election officials tabulated 27,000 additional absentee and early ballots Tuesday. That margin is smaller that the 7-point lead – or 13,439 votes — that write-in candidates had over Miller after election night...

...the new totals come as a major boost for Miller, who now trails the pool of write-in ballots by 11,333 votes headed into the next day's write-in vote count. Election officials will begin to open the more than 92,000 write-in ballots Wednesday to determine Murkowski’s vote totals.

COMMENT:  It may take a few weeks to sort this out.  The odds still favor Murkowski.  One element in the race is the prestige and influence of Sarah Palin, who endorsed Miller.  Alaska, of course, is her home state.

November 10, 2010     Permalink

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010

YOU GO TO BED WITH DOGS, YOU WAKE UP WITH... – AT 8:19 P.M. ET:  One of the dumber things the Obamans have done, and the list is long, was having America join the vastly corrupt UN Human Rights Council, a kind of group therapy session for dictators, where nations like Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela sit in judgment on "human rights violations" of various democracies.

Apparently, President Obama wanted to be a good sport and show that we can ignore moral corruption at the UN just as well as anyone else can.   It's good to be up there with the big boys.

But when you get involved with thugs, you get mugged:

The disclosure that former President Bush personally approved the “waterboarding” of al-Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed is expected to bring calls for torture prosecutions – both in the U.S. and at the United Nations.

Americans can expect to hear more about the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CAT), a U.S.-ratified treaty that calls for criminal prosecutions for “complicity or participation in torture.”

And...

Reports on Bush’s comments appeared just ahead of the first U.N. Human Rights Council review of the human rights record of the United States. The subject of torture was on the agenda for some of the countries that lined up to criticize and make recommendations to the U.S. at the meeting in Geneva Friday.

Imagine.  We are being judged by totalitarian regimes.  And we volunteered for it.

Addressing the panel of senior State Department officials present, Iran’s delegate said the U.S. should invite the U.N. human rights experts to investigate Guantanamo and then “put on trial its gross violators of human rights and its war criminals.”

“Put on trial the perpetrators of torture, extrajudicial executions and other serious violations of human rights committed in Guantanamo [and elsewhere],” the Cuban envoy advised the American delegation.

Read the rest of the story.  Take seasickness pills first.  All this was unnecessary.  To have anything to do with these people is an insult to Americans. 

By the way, the man in charge of these things in our State Department, Harold Koh, is the former dean of the Yale Law School, from which Secretary of State Clinton graduated.  He's a theoretician who's very high on the idea that the U.S. should be subject to international rules and laws.  He's a hard leftist.

It is still possible for former President Bush and former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, among others, to be prosecuted for their actions in "abusing" prisoners while in office, although such prosecutions would tear the country apart. 

And we thought "Alice in Wonderland" was a fantasy.

November 9, 2010      Permalink

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO OBAMA ON THE WAY TO DEIFICATION – AT 7:52 P.M. ET:  We kind of knew that Obama's godlike image would fade, and that George W. Bush would be resurrected.  We just didn't think it would happen this soon.  Bush is back with a book, and Americans seem to like him:

Good thing President Obama fled overseas after the disastrous Democratic outcomes in the midterm election.

He wouldn't want to see Tuesday's new poll numbers.

Gallup just announced that Americans' favorable opinions of George W. Bush are rising as the Obama presidency ages and now their favorable views of the Republican nearly match their falling feelings about the Democrat.

Gallup now finds that 44% of Americans have a favorable view of the 43rd president, up about 10%, or four points since the end of his second term in January 2009. Obviously, the former chief executive no longer has a job approval rating.

According to the authoritative RealClearPolitics average of polls, 45.4% of Americans now approve of Obama's job performance, while 49.6% disapprove, compared with 53% Bush disapproval. Obama's approval is down from the 70% range at his inauguration.

COMMENT:  Oh, I can just see the day when Obama secretly calls Bush for advice.  Now, I don't think that will happen because Obama's ego wouldn't allow it.  But maybe Michelle will call Laura.

Bush took a tremendous pounding in the press, and Obama has been treated like royalty in the press.  And look at the numbers.  What does that tell you?  It tells you that the American people eventually find the truth, despite the efforts of The New York Times and Christiane Amanpour.  Smart, those Americans.

November 9, 2010      Permalink

YOUR DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IN ACTION – AT 9:07 A.M. ET:  If President Obama wants to save himself, he might consider finding a private-sector job for Attorney General Eric Holder.  Under Holder, the Justice Department is becoming a bad joke.

The department is already at work disparaging possible 2012 Republican presidential candidates.  If you think this report is just coincidence, you're on another planet:

Tough-talking, budget-busting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has a new nickname: "Attorney C."

The fiscally conservative governor and former U.S. attorney faced accusations during his 2009 campaign that he often stayed in expensive hotels that exceeded the government's approved reimbursement rates.

In a report released Monday, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine confirmed that five unnamed former U.S. attorneys, including Christie, routinely exceeded government lodging rates "by large amounts, with insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification."

Government lodging rates vary depending on location and dates of travel. In 2009, the government rate in New York City ranged from $360 during the busy holiday season and $259 during summer months. The government rate for Peoria, Ill. in 2009 was $70 per night for the entire year.

Though the report does not use names, three of the former U.S. attorneys were men, two were women, and the description of hotel bills submitted by "Attorney C" match news reports about Christie's hotel bills published in the final weeks of the 2009 campaign. Christie was one of two former U.S. attorneys who declined to be interviewed by Fine's office.

COMMENT:  Chris Christie is a great governor, and a possible presidential candidate.  The Dems fear him.

Look, if Christie did anything wrong, he should reimburse the government.  But this issue was dealt with in his campaign, and his explanations for exceeding government guidelines seemed reasonable and practical.  Sometimes, rooms at government rates just weren't available, and he was on official business.

The report is an attempt to discredit Christie, just as the 2012 president sweepstakes begin.  I'd imagine other Republican candidates will suddenly find themselves under scrutiny by government agencies, or by the ever-vigilant (hah) media.  It's the same media that never quite developed the interest to ask questions about one John Edwards.  Or, for that matter, about one Barack Obama.

If I were Marco Rubio, I'd watch my back.

November 9, 2010      Permalink

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO – AT 8:43 A.M. ET:  It's only a brief report, but it may spell trouble.  From The Politico:

Vice President Biden will have breakfast on Tuesday with former Sen. Chuck Hagel, the White House says.

Hagel, a co-chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, was scheduled to meet with Biden at the Naval Observatory at 8 a.m. The White House didn’t say what they would talk about.

COMMENT:  Now we must all emulate Stonewall Jackson, and stand there like a stone wall, blocking this man Hagel from any further government appointment.

The man is a certified creep.  As Johnny Carson might have asked, "How creepy is he?"

And he would have answered, "He's so creepy that he declined to run for reelection to the Senate from Nebraska in 2008 because he own party wouldn't nominate him."

Hagel came to the Senate as a Republican, and then proceeded to oppose almost every military step George W. Bush took.  He claimed to be a military expert, based on some brief service in Vietnam.  A real Kerry clone.

In 2008, he turned his back on fellow Republican and fellow Vietnam vet John McCain.  While Hagel himself didn't endorse Obama, his wife did, which sent the necessary signal.

So Obama rewarded him with a government job.  But now there's buzz that Hagel might be appointed to succeed Bob Gates as secretary of defense, when Gates presumably leaves next year. 

No, no, no.  Rewarding a political turncoat is not what we need at Defense.  Hagel has never demonstrated good judgment, and seems more comfortable among liberal Dems than among Republicans. 

So, I hope the breakfast with Biden wasn't a job interview.  There are far better applicants.

November 9, 2010      Permalink

YES, WE ARE EXCEPTIONAL – AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  Jonah Goldberg, in a must-read column in the L.A. Times, takes dead aim at the growing chorus of "sophisticates," empowered by the age of Obama, who trash American exceptionalism:

Forget that every Fourth of July we celebrate the fact that we fought a Revolutionary War to become an exceptional nation. From their dismissive condescension, you'd think these three educated men didn't know that American exceptionalism has been a well-established notion among scholars for more than a century.

"The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional," wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in "Democracy in America," "and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one." Ever since, historians have argued that America's lack of a feudal past, its Puritan roots, the realism of its revolutionary ambitions and many other ingredients contributed to America's status as the "first new nation," to borrow a phrase from Seymour Martin Lipset, who spent his life writing about American exceptionalism.

E.L. Godkin, the Irish-born editor of the Nation, observed in 1867 that the lack of a class-based system, the existence of an open frontier and an optimism that comes with political and economic liberty marked the U.S. as a very different land than Britain, never mind the European continent. In 1906, German sociologist Werner Sombart released his book, "Why is There No Socialism in America?," in which he pointed to similar factors.

Ever since, left-leaning intellectuals have been taking dead aim at American exceptionalism. The notion that America has its own way of doing things separate and distinct from Europe has been one of the greatest impediments to Europeanizing America's political and economic institutions.

The so-called "elites" of America worship the European left.  They think of Europe as enlightened and cultured, as opposed to the ragged Americans, those people who, as Obama put it, "cling to their religion and their guns."

Of course, there are tens of thousands of American military graves on European soil.  If those soldiers could talk, I wonder what they would tell us about European "enlightenment."

Goldberg concludes:

America is the greatest country in the world. That doesn't mean it's perfect. But it is, and remains, the last best hope of Earth.

But, by all means, Democrats, listen to the sophisticates who chortle at the idea that there's anything especially good about America. That will solve Obama's "communication problem."

Yup.

November 9, 2010      Permalink

HUH? – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  Once again, President Obama seems to relish in the subject of American decline.  From The Times of India:

MUMBAI: Implicitly acknowledging the decline of American dominance, Barack Obama on Sunday said the US was no longer in a position to "meet the rest of the world economically on our terms"...

...Obama's remarks at the town hall meeting exposed his tremendous anxiety over the failure of his policies to spur the US economy fast enough and create jobs for Americans facing nearly 10% unemployment rate.

Obama, who just lost control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans, unbashedly said the objective of his visit was to find jobs for his voters. "I want to make sure we are here because this will create jobs in the US," he said, but stressed he was for a kind of relationship which will create jobs in India as well. As he put it: "A win-win proposition."

COMMENT:  Oh, dear, oh dear.  Barack Hussein Obama Jr. doesn't understand what George Bush understood instinctively:  The United States must not only be respected, it must be feared.  That's one way you keep the peace.

To go hat in hand and acknowledge American decline is unprecedented for an American president.  The laughter you hear is coming from the foreign ministries of the world.

Some of what Mr. Obama said made much sense.  But it's the way he says it that grates.  Nations must not only understand that America has a way of roaring back, but they must also understand that we can be depended upon, that we aren't going to fold in a fit of weakness.

Would you depend on Obama?  For anything?

November 9, 2010       Permalink