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FEBRUARY 21,  2011

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL NEWS – AT 9:29 P.M. ET:  Libya is in flames.  There have been reports during the day of soldiers firing on protesters, and even reports of air attacks against demonstrators.  And yet, we now know that some Libyan fighter pilots defected, flying their planes to Malta.  Libya's deputy UN ambassador denounced his own government on television, clearly putting his own life at risk.

Observers estimate that hundreds have been killed.  Britain's foreign minister speculated that Libyan leader Gaddafi might be in Venezuela, but the supreme commander denies it:

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has dismissed reports that he had fled amid the unrest sweeping the country, calling foreign news channels "dogs."

Speaking to state TV from outside a ruined building, he asserted: "I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela."

UK Foreign Minister William Hague had said he had seen information suggesting Col Gaddafi was on his way to Caracas.

Col Gaddafi's statement came after security forces and protesters clashed in the capital for a second night.

Witnesses say warplanes and helicopters fired on protesters in the city. To the west, sources said the army was fighting forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.

Earlier, the newly established General Committee for Defence said its forces would cleanse Libya of anti-government elements.

A statement described the protesters as "terrorist gangs made up mostly of misguided youths", who had been exploited and fed "hallucinogenic pills" by people following foreign agendas.

Gaddafi's son has promised a bloodbath unless the demonstrations stop.  They show no sign of stopping.  Many died today.  Tomorrow promises to be critical.  Perhaps the most important question:  How many members of the armed forces will defect?  Also, will Gaddafi be forced to flee, as Mubarak in Egypt was?  That may well depend on whether the security forces around him remain loyal.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

WE WERE WONDERING ABOUT THIS – AT 8:58 P.M. ET:  What, we ask, will be done to those "doctors" in Wisconsin who are writing fake illness notes so teachers can skip school?  The answer cometh:

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is investigating whether some of its doctors wrote fake sick notes to people protesting the governor's plan to strip public union employees of the right to collectively bargain.  

Over the weekend, FOX News reported that doctors from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine were manning a doctor station to write medical notes excusing those protesting at the Wisconsin State Capitol from work. Physicians were seen standing on a street corner wearing lab coats and giving out medical notes. 

"This involves a few individuals out of the nearly 1,300 physicians at UW Health," Lisa Brunette, Director of Media Relations for the school said in an email."These UW Health physicians were acting on their own and without the knowledge or approval of UW Health, she continued. "These charges are very serious and in response the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation, two of the entities that comprise UW Health, will immediately launch an investigation of the reported behavior. The investigation will identify which UW Health physicians were involved and whether their behavior constituted violations of medical ethics or University of Wisconsin and UW Health policies and work rules."

Whether?  WHETHER?  They have to investigate "whether" writing a fake medical note breaches ethics?  Boy, that must be some tough ethical code.

Many protesters could be in violation of their work contracts if they call out sick without a medical excuse. But a fraudulent doctor's notes could protect them from punishment by their employers even though they weren't sick and were out protesting.

Is that a serious statement?  A fraudulent doctor's note could protect them?  It truly is the People's Republic of Wisconsin.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

OBAMA SINKING IN RASMUSSEN POLL – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama enjoyed a brief bump in the polls recently, but now he's dropping back to the levels he was at through most of 2010.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18 (see trends).

Yesterday and today mark the president’s lowest ratings since mid-December. It remains to be seen whether this is merely the result of statistical noise or a change in perceptions of President Obama. For most of 2010, more than 40% of voters voiced Strong Disapproval of the president. However, following his December agreement with Senate Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts, the level of Strong Disapproval had declined.

And...

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-five percent (55%) disapprove.

COMMENT:  I'm not so sure that Obama's unhelpful entry into the Wisconsin dispute will do much for him in the polls.  Observers noted that he denounced the governor of Wisconsin faster than he denounced Hosni Mubarak.  And his rigid pro-union position – a position that will net him union political contributions – cannot be popular at a time when public-service unions are seen as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

But, as we've noted before, there are no guarantees here.  The GOP still has to choose a candidate to run against Obama, one of the best campaigners in memory.  No obvious candidate, no bookmaker's favorite, has emerged.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 8:55 A.M. ET: 

From London's Daily Mail:   President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle have not been invited to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.  The Queen personally invited 40 heads of state, who received the gold-embossed invitations over the weekend to the April 29 wedding of the future king.  The Obamas, however, were not among them.

I expect my invitation in the mail tomorrow.  My gift will be postage stamps sufficient for Britain to send back to America that bust of Winston Churchill that Obama threw back at them when he took office.  We'll find a place for it, a very safe place.

February 21, 2011      Permalink

WELL LOOK AT HIM NOW – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  British Prime Minister David Cameron made large waves recently by denouncing, in very vigorous terms, the curse of multiculturalism which, in its alliance with the Marxist left, is turning Britain into a basket case. 

His speech was Churchillian.  We didn't know he had it in him.  Now, Cameron does it again, raising the prospect that the West may be developing a real leader.  Charlotte Hays of the conservative Independent Women's Forum reports on Cameron's daring trip into Egypt:

It's Presidents' Day-and I'd like to take this opportunity to praise a man who is leading bravely in difficult times. His nation faces unprecedented financial challenges and the world is erupting on his watch. And yet...he leads.

Alas, I do not refer to President Obama.

David Cameron just became the first Western leader to visit Cairo since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak. The U.K. Telegraph reports that Mr. Cameron is "urging Egypt's new military leaders to make good on promises of full democracy."

And, unlike some leaders I could name, Mr. Cameron recognizes what non-secular force is most inimical to hope for a democracy in Egypt:

Mr. Cameron was also due to meet members of the anti-Mubarak opposition, but not members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest political organisation in the country.

Some Western analysts say the Brotherhood promotes extremism, and Mr. Cameron said he had deliberately chosen to meet non-Brotherhood members of the opposition in order to bolster them and their role in post-Mubarak Egypt.

He said that it was not inevitable that open elections in the country would lead to a government dominated by the Brotherhood.

"This is not an Islamist revolution, it not extremists on the streets," the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Cameron said that he believed the "huge ties of history and culture" between Britain and Egypt put him in a good position to make the case for greater freedom and democracy in the country.

Wow. Mr. Cameron is even proud of his island nation's history.

It's odd. Cameron came to power with a divided government, having to share power with another party, and he came across as just the sort of vaguely foppish Old Etonian who might very well be unequal to the challenges of a perilous world. By contrast, Barack Obama assumed the presidency as the world's darling, with a government skewed dramatically in favor of his party.

And yet...

Cameron doesn't seem to be the kind of leader desperate to get on the right side of history. Instead, he wants to do the right thing. He is grounded enough to know that the Muslim Brotherhood is a threat and bold enough to go to Egypt to try to bring about a good outcome for Egypt and the world.

COMMENT:  Cheers for David Cameron.  Unfortunately, he can't run in American presidential elections.  You have to be a native-born American for that, at least most of the time.  (Okay, okay, I was making a joke.)  But Cameron is showing the kind of spine that Obama lacks, and demonstrating why Obama has become a vast disappointment and laughing stock. 

At another critical time in history, it took a British prime minister to lead the way out of the darkness.  Are we seeing a worthy sequel?

February 21, 2011       Permalink

COMBAT IN WISCONSIN – AT 8:03 A.M. ET:  Reports from the People's Republic of Madison indicate that neither side is backing down.  Many Dem lawmakers have crossed state lines into the welcoming arms of the tax authorities of Illinois, so they don't have to go back to the Wisconsin legislature and actually vote on serious spending proposals.  Are these legislators still being paid?  From Fox:

Wisconsin Republicans on Sunday upped the pressure on Democrats who fled to Illinois to return home and vote on an anti-union bill, with the governor calling them obstructionists and a GOP lawmaker threatening to convene without them.

Gov. Scott Walker said the 14 minority Democrats who left Madison on Thursday were failing to do their jobs by "hiding out" in another state. And Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said his chamber would meet Tuesday to act on non-spending bills and confirm some of the governor's appointees even if the Democrats don't show up -- a scenario that should outrage their constituents.

Senate Democrats acknowledged that the 19 Republicans could pass any item that doesn't spend state money in their absence. The budget-repair bill they have been blocking requires a quorum of 20 senators to pass, while other measures require only a simple majority of the chamber's 33 members.

Nonetheless, Democrats said they were standing firm in their opposition to the budget-repair bill, which would take away the right of most public employees to collectively bargain for their benefits and working conditions. Hundreds of protesters filled the Capitol for a sixth straight day, noisily calling on Walker to drop the plan they consider an assault on workers' rights.

COMMENT:  If Scott Walker wins this battle, he emerges as a national figure.  But we have not yet seen serious polling in Wisconsin to assess the strength of the competing sides in public opinion.

Reports this morning indicate that the union protests are being led by teachers, many of whom are refusing to go into the classroom while the fight with the governor is underway.  This will not endear them to parents.

The whole issue of the legitimacy and desirability of public-employee unions is coming to a head in Wisconsin, with a possibile confrontation expected next in Ohio.  The key question:  Will the unions overplay their hand and face a severe backlash?  Some news reports say that the union movement is split, with some urging caution and compromise and others favoring the kind of confrontation we're seeing on the streets of Madison.  No outcome clear at this hour.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

LIBYA IN FLAMES – AT 7:24 A.M. ET:  Oh, the agony.  All those oil executives who, just last week, were licking the boots of Libya's brutal ruling family, are now making plans to leave the country.  And I'll bet there's plenty of sweating going on in foreign ministries, including our own, over fears that diplomatic messages will fall into the hands of protesters, revealing the extent of Western collusion with one of the worst regimes in the world.

Libya burns this morning, as Fox reports:

CAIRO – Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. Muammar al-Qaddafi's son vowed that his father and security forces would fight "until the last bullet."

Even as Seif al-Islam Qaddafi spoke on state TV Sunday night, clashes were raging in and around Tripoli's central Green Square, lasting until dawn Monday, witnesses said. They reported snipers opening fire on crowds trying to seize the square, and Qaddafi supporters speeding through in vehicles, shooting and running over protesters. Before dawn, protesters took over the offices of two of the multiple state-run satellite news channels, witnesses said.

A major government building in the capital was on fire Monday morning, a Reuters reporter said. The building is where the General People's Congress, or parliament, meets when it is in session in Tripoli.

Smoke was also rising from two sites in Tripoli where a police station and a security forces bases are located, said Rehab, a lawyer watching from the roof of her home.

The city on Monday was shut down and streets empty, with schools, government offices and most shops closed except a few bakeries serving residents hunkered down in their houses, she said, speaking on condition she be identified only by her first name.

COMMENT:  Although clashes continue elsewhere in the Mideast, with eyes on Bahrain and Yemen, Libya has become the main event, the new Egypt.  Even as the young Qaddafi vowed that blood will run in the streets, with thousands shot – he's not considered a neat date – protesters continue to press their case.

But...what is their case?

Again we must caution readers that all this excitement may or may not end well.  There are already disturbing signs in Egypt that the Islamists are starting to move in on the "revolution."  Tunisia, to its credit, is having an open debate on the role of Islam in that society.  Remember that there is no tradition of democracy in the Arab world.  Remember also that most revolutions go sour.

We watch carefully.

February 21, 2011     Permalink

FEBRUARY 20,  2011

BAD VIBES FROM CAIRO – AT 10:37 P.M. ET:  Oh, do you remember the revolution in Egypt?  That was the one a few weeks ago, before Wisconsin.  Remember all the smiling Western reporters dancing in the streets over the "people's" revolution?  You know that reporters will be enthusiastic when the guy being overthrown is an American ally.  Take that, Yanks!

And now the details are emerging.  CBS reporter Lara Logan is beaten and raped by a mob of "the people."  A Pew poll shows that "the people" might just go for a gang of Iranian-style Islamic mullahs.  And a slick-talking fundamentalist preacher makes a triumphant return to Egypt, just like the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran in 1979.  (It's not the same thing as MacArthur returning to the Philippines, believe me.)  Legal Insurrection, a great blog run by a sane Cornell law professor named William A. Jacobson, laments what we are now seeing: 

The television screens were filled with stories of relatively western figures such as Google employee Wael Ghonim, who became the face of the new Egypt -- educated, professional, and desirous of freedom as we know it.

Now that Mubarek is gone, the western media mostly has moved on to the next revolution, secure in the perception that Egypt is moving in the right direction.

But that is a false comfort. As I posted yesterday, over a million Egyptians turned out in Tahrir Square last Friday to cheer the vile anti-Semitic Sunni cleric Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who had been exiled by Mubarek, and who espouses the fundamentalist Islamic view that Jews must live as Dhimmis under Islamic control. Instead of accurately reporting the significance of this event, The New York Times whitewashed the cleric as someone who supports a "a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy."

And...

Where was the western hero Ghonim?

He tried to take the microphone to speak to the crowd, presumably to preach his western values, but he was kept off the stage by Sheik al-Qaradawi's security.

But you probably haven't heard that, because it was not widely reported, except by AFP:

Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt's uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.

Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.

This is the problem with those, like Roger Cohen in The New York Times, who glorify the "Arab Street." Ghonim was not the face of the "Arab Street," he merely was a face to which western media could relate.

Will the western media be as vigorous in exposing what is going on now in Egypt as it was in exposing the wrongs of Mubarek? I think not, because the truth -- that the western media acted as willing dupes once again -- hits too close to home.

COMMENT:  That is exactly right.  Once again, some reporters are becoming Lenin's useful idiots.  Add to Roger Cohen that most useful idiot of them all, The New York Times's Nicholas Kristof, who feels the pulse of the Egyptian people inside his Rhodes Scholar head, and who is scheduled to hear the pulse of some other people once he uses his frequent-flyer miles and checks into a new hotel. 

Fasten your seat belts, as Bette once said, it's going to be a bumpy two years.

February 20, 2011       Permalink

WILL CHRISTIE JUMP IN? – AT 9:40 P.M. ET:  No governor has gotten more press in recent months than Chris Christie, the, uh, heavily set Republican governor of New Jersey.  He has become something of a folk hero, leading to the inevitable questions about a presidential run.  Christie has said no, but we see a bit of an opening.  From The Politico:

One of Chris Christie's top political advisers revealed that he is considering formation of a federal political action committee because of the extraordinary interest in the New Jersey governor.

Bill Palatucci, often described as Christie's "political godfather," said that not forming such a fundraising committee would be "leaving money on the table."

In other words, the pols see a chance to seize the moment.

Palatucci, Christie's former law partner, made the remarks even as he tried throwing cold water on the notion that the governor — who's gotten acclaim from national Republicans — is taking steps designed toward a presidential run.

"If reporters would look for a second below the surface, they'd see I've never been to Iowa," Palatucci said, adding that another adviser, Mike DuHaime, "has not been to New Hampshire. There have been no lawyers hired to advise or investigate a presidential run."

But on the possibility of forming a federal committee, the newspaper quoted Palatucci as saying: 'I might frankly contemplate that. There's so much interest out there; it's leaving money on the table by not having one."

COMMENT:  This doesn't come as a complete surprise, but it's a long way from here to there.   Christie has become famous for taking on special interests in New Jersey.  You have to cheer the guy and his guts.  However, he's a relatively new governor, with no foreign-policy experience, and his confrontational manner, effective at the local level, might not click when the office sought is the presidency.  We still have months to observe him before a decision about 2012 is called for.  And observe we should. 

By the way, Christie's sheer physical size is not a joke, although we can hear the late-night jokes already.  If he runs, his medical condition will be an issue, whether it's fair or not.  I am not a physician – we have many physicians among our readership – and I don't know how an honest evaluation of his physical situation can be made.  Comments are welcome. 

February 20, 2011        Permalink

FROM THE FRONT IN WISCONSIN – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  "A note from your doctor" takes on an entirely new meaning in the state that gave us, we say with thanks, the Green Pay Packers.  From Fox:

As thousands of protesters on both sides of an epic budget standoff in Wisconsin faced off Saturday at the Capitol, alleged doctors were handing out "fake" sick notes to protesters -- allowing them to call in sick while the budget impasse continues.

Protesters told Fox News they obtained the notes from alleged doctors standing on street corners handing them out to whomever asked. The protesters said doctors did not examine or inquire about their current health condition before passing the notes out.

In other words, don't ask, don't tell.  Wasn't the progressive left against something like that?

One note obtained by Fox News asked for the recipient's full name, birth date and estimated dates that they would be missing work. A request for identification to receive the document appeared only optional.

On the note, the doctor's name linked back to the University of Wisconsin Family Medical Program, although the doctor was only one of many distributing the paperwork.

I am rushing to Wisconsin.  I want a note saying that I am pregnant with triplets.  I've always wanted to be the center of conversation.

Stay tuned for more news from the front.

February 20, 2011      Permalink

SCHOLARS AT WORK – AT 10:11 A.M. ET:  There are many fine people at Columbia University in New York, but there are some who aren't so fine.  This story will enrage you, but it is typical of what goes on at some of our houses of learning.  From the New York Post:

Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.

"Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.

The cry of "racist" is the standard left-wing merchandise.  No matter who you are, or what you stand for, you're a racist if they don't like you. 

Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.

"It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting," said Maschek. "There are bad men out there plotting to kill you."

Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.

Imagine laughing at a man who was in a wheelchair from wounds suffered in the service of his country.  I wonder how many Columbia "scholars" will express outrage.  I'm not holding my breath.

The party line in the Ivy League, of which Columbia is a part, is that ROTC has been kept out because of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays.  Now that the policy has been reversed, we have a moral right to expect that ROTC would be welcomed back.  Not in your life.  The left will simply come up with more excuses, wallowing in its traditional deception and dishonesty.

As I said, there are also fine people at Columbia:

A group of 34 faculty colleagues, including historian Kenneth Jackson and former Bloomberg adviser Esther Fuchs, plan to announce their support of ROTC tomorrow.

Two very solid, traditional faculty members.  Jackson is a military historian.

We hope this New York Post story will result in some Columbia alumni heating up the lines to the office of President Lee Bollinger, and demanding that he apologize, on behalf of the university, for the treatment of war hero Maschek.

Columbia was, during World War II, a great center for the training of naval officers.  Read "The Caine Mutiny," by Columbia graduate Herman Wouk.

February 20, 2011     Permalink

MASSACRE – Things are getting obscene in Libya.  This is the country whose regime the Obamans whitewashed when they came to office.  Our relations were upgraded, the commercial contracts are flowing.  From WaPo:

CAIRO -- Libyan forces fired machine-guns at mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi Sunday, a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi pummeled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry.

A doctor at one city hospital said his morgue had received at least 200 dead from six days of unrest.

The doctor said his hospital, one of two in Libya's second-largest city, is out of supplies and cannot treat more than 70 wounded in similar attacks on mourners Saturday and other clashes.

The other sound you hear, when the machine guns die down, is the sound of silence on the part of "progressives," too busy in Wisconsin to notice the massacres going on in the Mideast. 

And, of course, notice the silence of the European "human rights" protesters. 

But the left, being the left, will go back to its usual posturing once the massacres are over, as if nothing had happened.  Did the Cambodian genocide stop them?  No.  Did 9-11 change them?  No. 

And the Obama administration?  Do you recall a time, other than the administration of Jimmah Carter, when America seemed so pathetic, so weak, so lacking in influence? 

Sometimes I wish we had a parliamentary system, where a government can be brought down by a vote of "no confidence."  We'd have a good shot with Barack Hussein Obama.

February 20, 2011     Permalink