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FEBRUARY 23,  2011

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 7:57 P.M. ET:  Reflecting on the rough treatment given to former Army Sergeant Anthony Maschek, severely wounded in combat and in a wheelchair, when he tried to make a pro-ROTC speech to a meeting at Columbia University, where he is now a student.  From an editorial in the Washington Times:

It would be interesting to see how mollycoddled undergraduates and administrators might react to being forced to make a sacrifice far less significant than those Mr. Maschek has made. Congress could restrict federal funding, including student loans, from schools that continue to ban ROTC programs from campus. Freedom isn’t free, and it may be time for the anti-military bigots to learn that their position carries a price.

COMMENT:  Excellent idea, something I've always believed was the correct course.  In our entitlement society, universities have gotten the idea that they have a right to federal grants.  They do not.  Congress might remind these schools that they're part of the nation, and that universities at one time joined proudly and vigorously in the national defense.  Withholding funds would be a powerful reminder that there are obligations along with rights.

February 23, 2011       Permalink 

HE SPEAKS – AT 7:33 P.M. ET:  Apparently bugged by the criticism of his failure to speak out on Libya, and presumably aware that Libya is a greater threat to the world than Wisconsin, President Obama spoke out today about the Libyan revolution.  Frankly, it wasn't much:

The American people extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all who’ve been killed and injured. The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and it is unacceptable. So are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters and further punish the people of Libya. These actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency. This violence must stop.

The United States also strongly supports the universal rights of the Libyan people. That includes the rights of peaceful assembly, free speech, and the ability of the Libyan people to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. They are not negotiable. They must be respected in every country. And they cannot be denied through violence or suppression.

That's nice.  Fine words, signifying nothing.  Compare please with Obama's getting on the phone to American ally Hosni Mubarak and ordering him to get the hell out.

Yesterday a unanimous U.N. Security Council sent a clear message that it condemns the violence in Libya, supports accountability for the perpetrators, and stands with the Libyan people.

Uh, Mr. President, a message isn't a resolution.  The message was at the lowest level.  Not exactly a ringing denunciation.

I’ve also asked my administration to prepare the full range of options that we have to respond to this crisis. This includes those actions we may take and those we will coordinate with our allies and partners, or those that we’ll carry out through multilateral institutions.

Oh dear, oh dear.  What comes next?  A college seminar.  This means nothing.  The crisis is now.

By the way, I was stunned to find out, in the last day, that the U.S. doesn't have a single aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.  How this can be at a time of such convulsion I cannot fathom.  Some enterprising journalist assigned to the Pentagon ought to look into this.  The crisis began in Tunisia many weeks ago.  It doesn't take that long to sail across the Atlantic.

The entire world is watching, and we will coordinate our assistance and accountability measures with the international community. To that end, Secretary Clinton and I have asked Bill Burns, our Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, to make several stops in Europe and the region to intensify our consultations with allies and partners about the situation in Libya.

Take that, Gaddafi.  More consultations.  You understand that, you bad boy?

I’ve also asked Secretary Clinton to travel to Geneva on Monday, where a number of foreign ministers will convene for a session of the Human Rights Council. There she’ll hold consultations with her counterparts on events throughout the region and continue to ensure that we join with the international community to speak with one voice to the government and the people of Libya.

Is that a serious statement?  Sometimes a president needs someone to whisper to him, "Sir, do you really want to sound as inept and foolish as you actually are?"  The UN Human Rights Council is one of the most corrupt bodies in the world.  Among its members is Libya.

It's hard to imagine Ronald Reagan rushing Secretary of State George Shultz over to a meeting of the Human Rights Council.  Did Clinton try to talk Obama out of this? 

February 23, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:

From American Thinker:  According to federal Judge Gladys Kessler of the DC US District Court, the powers granted to the federal government on the Commerce Clause extend to regulating "mental activity." Ruling on an ObamaCare challenge brought by 2 individuals, the good judge made the leap from "physical activity" to "mental activity" in extending the reach of the federal government. This is not a joke.

Well, since they're regulating mental activity, I guess the people who run MSNBC have nothing to worry about.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

THUNE OUT – AT 10:03 A.M. ET:  Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, considered by many observers one of the more attractive prospects for 2012, has bowed out of the presidential race:

Washington (CNN) - After months of speculation, Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, told supporters Tuesday that he will not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and instead will focus his time and efforts on Capitol Hill.

Thune released a joint statement with his wife, Kimberley, on his Facebook page shortly after noon saying that, for now, he needs to be in the Senate.

"There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now," Thune said in the statement. "So at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America's future here in the trenches of the United States Senate."

COMMENT:  Although Thune is less-well-known than other candidates, he has a winning personal quality, and has a good record in the Senate.

I do wish political writers would pay some attention to the newer prospects, like Marco Rubio of Florida.  The party needs a dynamic candidate to take on Obama, not simply someone who's been standing in line.  And choosing a Hispanic-American would be good politics.  Some would argue that Rubio lacks the experience to be president, an argument not likely to be raised by Obama, whose serious experience when he ran in 2008 could be written on a postage stamp.  Rubio was speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, a high state position, before being elected to the United States Senate in November. 

I fear that a divided GOP will make a hash of things in 2012, allowing this failed president to sail into a second term, with potentially catastrophic damage to the nation's foreign policy.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

UNDER THE RADAR – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  Funny, but I couldn't find much about this in the usual media.  It's a good first step, but it's only a beginning:

(CNSNews.com) - The House of Representatives has voted to defund a United Nations climate change panel after the Republican who introduced the proposal said the body had “whipped up a global frenzy” over climate change because its members were politically motivated.

“It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomenon which is statistically questionable at best,” Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) said on the House floor late Saturday night.

Luetkemeyer introduced the amendment to the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, a bill that will fund the federal government for the balance of the year. His amendment prohibits any of the money the government plans to spend this year from supporting the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. body that reports on climate change science.

COMMENT:  The vote may be purely symbolic, as prospects in the Senate are iffy, but the message sent is a strong one.  The climate-change lobby will call it "anti-science," but it isn't.  The vote expresses displeasure with the UN's irresponsible handling of "climate change," and Luetkemeyer is correct:  political motivation plays a key role.  What we have often seen is political science, not real science.

As we have screamed here before, it is time, in this advanced country, for a Challenger-like commission to investigate the whole area of climate change and definitively report what we know, what we don't know, and what we have to know.  We are being asked to spend trillions of dollars to defeat a phenomenon that may not actually exist.

One element here that bears investigating – and President Eisenhower predicted it some half century ago in his farewell address to the nation – is the impact of government grants on scientific findings.  When grants are only available to those who go along with the party line, you may be sure that the line will find favor in laboratories throughout the country.  Even in science, money talks.

The left will ask no questions.  So we'll have to.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:  The Gallup organization has some grim political news for President Obama this morning, but the president can still seek political asylum in the approving state of Hawaii:

PRINCETON, NJ -- Residents of Hawaii gave native son President Barack Obama the highest average 2010 job approval rating (66%) of any of the 50 states, surpassed only by the 84% Obama received in the District of Columbia. Obama's lowest average state approval rating in 2010 was 28% in Wyoming.

Half of the 10 most approving states in 2010 were located in the Northeast: New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Three exceptions were Maryland, California, and Obama's home state of Illinois. All of these states tilt significantly more Democratic in terms of political party identification than the national average.

Five of the 10 least approving states in 2010 were in the West: Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, and Montana. The other least approving states were mostly in the middle of the country, including Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Kansas.

Obama's overall average approval rating in 2010 was 47%, down 11 percentage points from the 58% he recorded in his first calendar year in office. For purposes of this state-by-state analysis, Obama's average is calculated for the calendar year, and is therefore slightly different than the yearly average calculated beginning with his inauguration on January 20, 2009.

And...

Obama's approval rating fell in 2010 compared with 2009 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, although the general rank order of the states based on Obama job approval was quite similar in both years.

COMMENT:  Right now the president seems to be going through another period of decline.  We'll check his standings in the Rasmussen poll when they're posted in about half an hour, but recent Rasmussen numbers have been in indigestion territory.  It's hard to say exactly why, but Mr. Obama seems to be out to lunch on the major issues of the day, showing little leadership, moral or otherwise.  I don't know, maybe he misses the Libya that was.

February 23, 2011       Permalink

THERE, SOMEONE HAS SAID IT – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  No Western country has closer ties with Libya than does Italy, so the words of the Italian foreign minister carry some weight.  And he expresses a concern that too many pundits and journalists seem unwilling to echo.  From The New York Times:

ROME — Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday said the death toll from days of unrest in Libya was likely more than 1,000, and worried that violence there could spark Islamic extremism.

Europe has played ball with the Libyan dictatorship because of oil.  Now that the regime is under siege, the Libyan chickens – I think they're allowed to eat chicken – are coming home to roost.  Waiting in the wings in most Arab countries are the militant Muslim groups, often the best-organized political forces available.

Noting that the situation was chaotic, Mr. Frattini told reporters in Rome that he believed estimates that more than 1,000 Libyan civilians had been killed in the clashes with security forces and government supporters “appear to be true.”

Later, addressing the Italian parliament on Wednesday morning, Mr. Frattini added that he was concerned about a rise in “Islamic radicalism” and “the rise of an Islamic emirate” in Eastern Libya, including the Cyrenaica region, which he said was “no longer under the Libyan government’s control.”

“This radical Islamism worries us because it is only a few hundred kilometers from the European Union,” Mr. Frattini said, adding that, “nothing can justify the violent killing of hundreds of innocent civilians.”

COMMENT:  Frattini is a pretty decent guy, but I wish he'd convince some European leftists and "intellectuals" that nothing justifies the violent killing of hundreds of innocent civilians.  After our 9-11, plenty of Europeans justified the attacks as retribution for American "policies."  You'll notice the silence of those same European leftists and "intellectuals" today.   They apparently haven't figured out a way to blame the U.S. and Israel for the Arab uprisings, but they will.

I'm glad Frattini used the forbidden term "Islamic radicalism," a term banned by our own Defense Department.  There is enormous danger that legitimate revolution in the Mideast will be hijacked by the Islamists, and that we will all wind up worse off than before.  Don't expect much on this from the politically correct mainstream media.

February 23, 2011     Permalink

FEBRUARY 22,  2011

OBAMA'S DISGRACEFUL SILENCE ON LIBYA – AT 10:03 P.M. ET:  Compared to the chap who runs Libya, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was a pussycat.  And yet, Obama ferociously went after Mubarak, demanding that he step down.

But when it comes to Libya, Mr. Obama seems less outraged than he does by the governor of Wisconsin.

Obama's silence has been a major theme around the internet today, and on some news programs.  Foreign news organizations, especially the Brits, have begun to notice.  From Britain's Telegraph:

Once again, the White House has fluffed its lines on the Arab revolution. With Gaddafi’s helicopter gunships strafing his own people, with corpses piling up on the streets of Tripoli, President Barack Obama has remained silent.

Gaddafi is an enemy of America.  Mubarak was an ally of America.  Notice the difference in the treatment.

There must be many, many people in Libya who are fence-sitting at the moment; the right words of support from the president of the United States could make all the difference to a tribal leader, an army colonel, the head of a provincial lawyers’ guild uncertain about throwing in their lot with those already brave enough to take to the streets or disown Gaddhafi.

We used to be a beacon of light.  Now we're a beacon of Obama.

Libya provides an opportunity to divert from the script now prepared for the rest of the Middle East – condemning violence, calling for restraint and respecting the rights of protestors. Col Gaddhafi may not listen to the US, which has little or no leverage on his oil-rich fiefdom, but that is even more reason for the president to forcefully place himself on the right side of history.

The flames of change are already lit in Libya, and the president needs to do his best to make sure they blow in the right direction.

COMMENT:  I dread to ask what the phrase "right direction" means to our current White House.  That may be the question of the decade.

February 22, 2011      Permalink

CHICAGO UPDATE – AT 9:59 P.M. ET:  Rahm Emanuel has been elected mayor of Chicago.  This ends the Daley era, unless some cousin named Daley turns up.

February 22, 2011       Permalink

BULLETIN – AT 8:59 P.M. ET:  CNN is projecting that Rahm Emanuel will win the Chicago mayoralty outright tonight, avoiding an April 5th runoff.

We stress that this is a projection.  We will continue to follow the actual votes of all voters, living or dead. 

This is an important election.  The mayor of Chicago has always been an important political figure nationally, and often has more real political power in the key state of Illinois than does the governor.

February 22, 2011      Permalink

POLITICAL SHIFTS – AT 9:45 A.M. ET:  Democrats can no longer count on some previously solid blue states, but Republicans aren't necessarily the immediate gainers.  From The Politico:

More than a dozen blue states turned purple between 2008 and 2010, Gallup found in its analysis of party affiliations in daily tracking polls.

Based on the party affiliations that people provided to pollsters, 14 states were considered solidly Democratic in 2010, with Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents outweighing Republicans by at least 10 percentage points. In 2009, that number was 24, and in 2008, when President Barack Obama was elected, 30 states were solidly Democratic by Gallup’s measure.

But a shift away from the Democratic Party hasn’t necessarily brought a windfall to the GOP. In 2008, four states were considered solidly Republican and another one leaned Republican. In 2010, five states were solidly Republican and another five leaned Republican, meaning that people identifying themselves as Republicans and Republican-leaning independents outnumbered Democrats by more than 5 percentage points and fewer than 10 percentage points.

Most of the melt from solidly blue states was toward the purple, the states Gallup considers “competitive.” In 2008, 10 states were in that category. In 2010, Gallup counted 18. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of states that leaned Democratic rose from six to nine.

COMMENT:  Once again we are reminded of the fact that, while Americans are turning away from the Democrats in droves, the GOP isn't exactly loved.  To become loved it needs 1) to develop a positive, clear and optimistic message and 2) it needs to find a presidential candidate who can lead and inspire, and draw people to the GOP, not just away from the opposition.

I don't see that person yet.

February 22, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:09 A.M. ET: 

Via my friend, Iranian rights activist Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi:

So you thought people in this country named their children oddly, with names like "Apple", "Rumer" and "Mathew" with one "T," but one man in Egypt may have topped them all.  Inspired by the role Facebook played in the recent protests and ultimate overthrow of Egypt's president, the twenty-something year-old man felt a need to express his thanks, and did so by naming his newborn girl "Facebook."

Look, it could have been much worse.  Imagine if Microsoft Office 2011 was the big player in the revolution.

February 22, 2011       Permalink

AND NOW OHIO – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  The situation in Wisconsin is deadlocked, and now a new center of conflict emerges – Ohio.  Our Midwest is beginning to look like the Middle East.  We wonder where the revolution will come next.  Ohio appears to be the new Wisconsin.  From Fox:

The next focus of demonstrators protesting collective bargaining reforms should be Columbus, Ohio where thousands, if not tens-of-thousands, of protestors are expected to gather Tuesday and shout their views about a controversial bill that puts labor unions in the crosshairs of a determined governor intent on salvaging his state's financial situation.

The protests should look and sound much like the ones from Madison, Wisconsin that have gripped the nation in the recent days and marries an uncomfortable economic reality with political opportunity.

"It's to put our children first. It's to do the things without regard to political considerations and try to serve the public," Ohio Governor John Kasich told FOX News late Monday afternoon from the same building where demonstrators will rally Tuesday. "And if we get that done; we balance our budget--$8 billion in the hole--without a tax increase and we've cut taxes on income taxes, that's going to send a message to the rest of that country that if they can do it [in Columbus], they can do it in their state and they maybe, guess what, they might actually be able to do something like this in Washington."

Well said...from a guy who probably has national ambitions.

While the broad pictures of Wisconsin and Ohio are similar with declarations of impending economic disaster and cures of pension and collective bargaining reform, a closer look at the proposals in both states reveal a significant difference.

The Wisconsin reforms don't cover all public employee unions. Firefighters and police officers, for example, aren't on the hook in the Badger State but all unionized state and municipal employees in Ohio are subject to the reforms proposed in Senate Bill 5, which would strip the collective bargaining rights of all public workers.

"We have a very tight budget statewide and our local governments have....budgets and expenditures that are blossoming out of control," state Senator Kevin Bacon explained to FOX News. "And part of that is because of the current collective bargaining contracts in place."

COMMENT:  Stand by for action.  I wonder if President Obama will compare Kasich to Mubarak.  I would not be shocked.

Meanwhile, the first serious national polling on Wisconsin, by Rasmussen, shows 48% supporting the governor, 38% sympathetic to the unions, and the rest undecided.  That may not seem like a lopsided endorsement of the governor, but please remember that the Democratic base hovers at around 30%, so the protesters in Madison aren't getting much above that base. 

February 22, 2011       Permalink

LIBYA THIS MORNING – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  Libya is a ghastly scene, from all that we can gather.  It is very hard to get precise information out of that closed country.  Blood is flowing in the streets, but so is the hypocrisy of world" leaders":

CAIRO (AP) — The bodies of slain protesters were left on the streets of the Libyan capital Tuesday and frightened residents hunkered down in their homes as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi sought to crush anti-government demonstrations by shooting on sight anyone outside, residents and an opposition activist said.

Amid the crackdown, a defiant Gadhafi appeared on state TV in the early hours Tuesday to show he was still in charge, brandishing a large umbrella and wearing a cap with fur ear flaps, and denying reports he had left the country.

The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi, and his regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors abroad and even some officials at home. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing sources inside the country, said Tuesday that at least 250 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in the crackdown on protesters in Libya, though its officials said the true number was not known.

Sickening.  The high commissioner for what?  Libya sits on the UN's "Human Rights Council."  Even though a total dictatorship, there was no serious challenge to its membership.  Hey, oil talks.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the toll at at least 233 killed, based on contacts with Libyan hospitals — but their toll did not include casualties from crackdowns in Tripoli since Sunday night, a sign of the difficulty of getting information out of the highly closed North African Nation.

The head of the U.N. agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population "may amount to crimes against humanity."

We're so deeply impressed by her sudden concern.  This woman is one of the biggest collaborators with evil at the UN.  Is she shocked, shocked, by the brutal putdown of demonstrators? 

The first major protests to hit an OPEC country — and major supplier to Europe — sent oil prices soaring to more than $93 a barrel Tuesday, and the industry has begun eyeing reserves touched only after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 1991 Gulf War.

Let's be blunt:  That's all most people care about when the word "Libya" comes up.

World leaders also have expressed outrage. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Gadhafi to "stop this unacceptable bloodshed" and said the world was watching the events "with alarm."

Please notice that Barack Hussein Obama Jr. has not issued a single statement.  He was very quick to condemn Mubarak, an American ally, and quicker still to condemn Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin.  But when it comes to enemies, Obama is out to an extended lunch.  It is a revolting spectacle to watch.

And Secretary Clinton's statement did not even call for regime change.  What an absurd, embarrassing administration.

February 22, 2011       Permalink 

CHICAGO, CHICAGO – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  Chicago goes to the polls today to elect a new mayor.  If no one gets 50%, a runoff will be held on April 5th.

Car services have already started taking voters from the cemeteries to the polls.  For those of you who live in Chicago and want to see Aunt Gladys again, go to her polling place.

The overwhelming favorite is Rahm Emanuel, the boisterous former chief of staff to President Obama.  No other candidate even comes close in opinion surveys.  But will Rahm get the 50%?  His poll numbers have been hovering just below that level.  If he doesn't win outright today, the runoff could get ugly, with ethnic resentments playing a major part.  The race card is not just played in Chicago, it is embraced and relished. 

But no one seriously believes that Rahm Emanuel won't be the next mayor, anointed either tonight or on April 5th.  Some of his opponents are rumored to be seeking political asylum in Wisconsin.  Since Illinois gave asylum to escaping Democratic legislators from Wisconsin, who crossed state lines to avoid voting on Governor Scott Walker's reform package, it's only fair that Wisconsin reciprocate.  Displaced candidates' camps are already being established in Madison.

Stand by for the vote count tonight. 

February 22, 2011     Permalink