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.

AT THE LATEST ANGEL'S CORNER – THE NAMING OF THE FIRST RECIPIENT OF URGENT AGENDA'S HOPELESS CLOWN AWARD, EVEN HIGHER THAN OUR POMPOUS FOOL AWARD. 

JULY 30,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:41 P.M. ET:

COMPROMISE? – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has postponed a scheduled vote on his own debt bill until tomorrow, giving more time to negotiations that presumably are underway among Dems, Republicans, and the White House.  No specifics on those negotiations have leaked out.  Although Republican leaders said earlier in the day that a deal was close, Reid poured water on that assessment this evening.  Default day is Tuesday.

HIM AGAIN? – Real estate magnate, TV personality, and supreme hair comber Donald Trump, says that he may run for president if the economy stays bad.  There appears to be no chance that Trump could get the GOP nomination, meaning he would have to run as an independent.  Thus he would duplicate the ego trip of Ross Perot in 1992, which probably cost George H.W. Bush a second term, and sent Bill Clinton to the White House.  Trump would take votes from the Republicans.  I doubt if many Obama voters would defect to him.  I wish he would stay in the apartment-house business.

INCREDIBLE – Iran will name a new oil minister this week, and that individual is set to become the president of OPEC, which has a rotating presidency.  It's Iran's turn.  The new minister will probably be a general in Iran's  Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is under sanction by U.S., European Union, and U.N. sanctions.  As president of OPEC, he could have substantial influence in world oil markets at a time of stress and uncertainty.  Obama's outreach to Iran has certainly done a lot of good, hasn't it?

SAME OLD MIDEAST STORY – The prestige of Libya's rebel movement has suffered a serious blow as it was acknowledged that Islamic elements within its ranks murdered the rebels' top battlefield commander.  There is now growing concern that extreme Islamic elements are far more powerful in the rebel movement than we'd previously thought.  We must now contemplate that the fall of Gadaffi's government might bring in a regime that is even worse, a prospect that we must already contemplate in Egypt.  One day the Arabs will get something right.  Maybe a lovely new pyramid, painted in bright colors, or a new exotic dance.  Hey, you gotta begin somewhere.

July 30, 2011    Permalink   

CRISIS IN TURKEY – DOES WASHINGTON CARE? – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  Turkey is one of the more critical nations, a bridge between Europe and the Mideast, and the only Muslim country in NATO.  But Turkey is going through internal trauma that can affect both the Western alliance and stability in the Mideast.

In a story that has been overshadowed by the American debt dilemma, Turkey's military leadership has resigned.  It is the military that has maintained Turkey's secular, pro-Western traditions against the pro-Islamic regime that the country has had for a decade.  Turkey's pro-Western stance is weakening considerably, with a government more sympathetic to Iran than to those resisting Iran.  This is not good for us:

(Reuters) - Turkey's top military brass resigned on Friday, in the latest and possibly decisive round of a long battle between the traditional secularist establishment embodied by the army and the Islam-rooted government of Tayyip Erdogan that has dominated Turkey for nearly a decade.

The head of Turkey's military quit on Friday along with the army, navy and airforce chiefs in protest against what he called the unjust detention of 250 military officers held on charges of conspiracy against Prime Minister Erdogan's government.

The unprecedented move by the High Command in NATO's second largest armed forces sent shockwaves through Turkey.

It lays open the deep rift between a military badged with the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatruk, founder of the Turkish Republic, and a rival elite represented by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK), with Islamist roots and a vast following in the conservative heartland of Anatolia.

COMMENT:  The Islamists are winning in Turkey, with profound implications for NATO and for relations with the Muslim world.  Turkey has access to classified information within NATO, and NATO is currently engaged in two Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Libya.  I wonder what's happening to that secret data. 

If Turkey's military falls under Islamic control, the battle for Turkey is over, and NATO's second largest military force will, bottom line, be on the other side.  That is simply an incredible prospect, and can lead NATO into even more paralysis than it already suffers.

July 30, 2011       Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  Today's Rasmussen tracker shows a sharp drop for the president, with the public clearly disenchanted:

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. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21.

Strong Disapproval of the president is now at the highest level since November 9, 2010. Additionally, 50% give the president poor marks for his handling of the economy.

And...

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) at least somewhat disapprove.

COMMENT:  Gallup actually picked up this trend first, but Rasmussen's numbers are now falling into line.  The president's approval is in the low forties.  Should it dip into the thirties, that would be real political news.  You'll see stories like, "Obama headed for George Bush country."

At the same time, we give our usual cautions – that polls are snapshots, and subject to major changes, and poor numbers for Obama do not translate into good numbers for Republicans.  Americans are down on just about everyone right now.  Mother Teresa would have a hard time getting elected.

July 30, 2011       Permalink

HAPPY WEEKEND – AT 10:22 A.M. ET:  Live it up.  Have a ball.  Captain Smith says the iceberg really didn't do that much damage, and the Titanic will make it to port on Tuesday. 

Oh, wait.  Wrong disaster.  We really should be focused on America's anticipated default on Tuesday morning.

We have nothing dramatic to report to you.  There's been no real progress on avoiding the Tuesday deadline.  Now, as we understand it here, the roof won't collapse on Tuesday.  Money flows into the federal government all the time, and we can meet immediate obligations.  But the symbolism will be devastating, and will encourage ratings agencies to downgrade our credit rating.

We know only that "talks are underway," and that the Senate anticipates a vote on some kind of plan at 1 a.m. tomorrow.  The boys are staying up late.  The mainstream media, as expected, is framing the situation as being created by Tea Party conservatives, who are holding out for their demands.

We do not see much activity on behalf of Mr. Change We Can Believe In.  This glorified town councilman sits in the White House and waits for the peasants below to come up with ideas.  Our side warned in 2008 that this man, who no doubt is bright and speaks very well, was woefully unprepared for the presidency.  He's been in office two and a half years.  Case closed.

July 30, 2011     Permalink

JULY 29,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:02 P.M. ET:

BOEHNER BILL PASSES HOUSE – In a largely symbolic vote, the House tonight passed the Boehner debt-reduction bill.  It will be sent to the Senate, where Harry Reid promises to kill it instantly, which will happen.  There is also a Reid proposal floating around.  The major, and alarming, difference between the Boehner and the Reid is that the Reid Democratic proposal guts the Defense Department, a dream of the left wing of the Democratic Party.  Fortunely, enough Republicans have retained their sanity and are pledged to block any such grossly irresponsible act.  Boehner's proposal passed with 218 votes, two more than needed.  Some 22 Republicans, mostly from the Tea Party, voted against it.  Included among the 22 was Michele Bachmann.  We are now four days from the August 2nd default deadline, with no proposal out there capable of winning both houses of Congress.  Look for 'round-the-click talks.  If we had a real president, those talks would be in the White House, behind locked doors and with plenty of cigar smoke.

OBAMA HITS NEW GALLUP LOW – President Obama today hit his lowest approval number in the Gallup tracker – 40%.  Approval among independents stands at 34%.  By contrast, Rasmussen, sometimes accused of being a GOP-leaning pollster, has Obama's approval at 46%, with 54% disapproving.  We caution that numbers like this do not automatically translate into support for Republicans, who also are taking a hit in the polls.  There's a kind of "plague on both your houses" attitude among many Americans.

SPAIN GOING TO EARLY ELECTIONS – Spain is in desperate economic shape, and is run by a prime minister who is aloof to the United States and our interests.  Today Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, under pressure, moved elections scheduled for next March forward to this November.  It is critical for America that Zapatero's socialists be tossed out, and replaced by the conservative opposition.  Spain had been one of America's strongest allies in the war on terror until the great Prime Minister José María Aznar was defeated in 2004, after the Madrid train bombings. 

VULGAR – The United Nations, which long ago outlived its usefulness as a "peace" organization, is at it again.  Despite the horror of what is going on in Syria, with citizens shot in the street for protesting, while others quietly disappear after dark, the U.N. is extending its development partnership with the brutal Assad regime.  Hey, what's a couple of thousand bodies in the street?  This comes as some Western democracies, whose response is weak enough, are imposing some sanctions on Syria in an attempt to get the government to change.  Some chance.  Reports out of Syria say 20 more protesters were killed today.

July 29, 2011       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:09 A.M. ET:  Just about everyone is looking with dismay at what is happening in Washington.  First-class political writer Charlie Cook sums it up, at National Journal:

Washington is now sullying America’s long-deserved reputation as the leading country in the world to such an extent that we are becoming a laughingstock. The renowned, late journalist A.J. Liebling, a fixture for many years in The New Yorker and a chronicler of then-Louisiana Gov. Earl Long, once wrote that the home state I share with Long was “the northernmost of the banana republics.” If Liebling were alive today, he might expand his “northernmost” banana republic to include the whole United States, with Washington as its sorry capital. My guess is that most members of Congress and their aides are too close to the process and don’t fully appreciate what they are doing to themselves, the institution, and the nation’s political process.

Very well said.

COMMENT:  I have an idea.  It won't be accepted, but I think it's valid.  If Barack Obama were smart, and I mean really smart in a practical, common-sense, adult-thinking way, he would go before the American people and say this:

"My fellow Americans, we are in a serious crisis.  It is so serious that it goes beyond any political or personal consideration.  This crisis cannot be solved if you, the citizens of the country, believe that all we are interested in here is our own personal futures.  This must be above politics.  Therefore, as leader of the nation, I am announcing that I will not be a candidate for reelection next year.  I will devote all my efforts to solving the problems before us, never being diverted or influenced by personal or political goals."

That would be a wise, statesmanlike thing to do.  Lyndon Johnson did it in 1968.  I think Obama's ego is too strong for him to consider such a course, but maybe Michelle can nudge him, and ask him why he'd want a second term anyway.  Second terms are almost always worse than the first, and the first has been bad enough.  If Obama declines to run, he has a shot at going out like a statesman.  If he stays, the mess will likely grow larger.

July 29, 2011       Permalink 

DEAD DEBT DEBATE – AT 9:38 A.M. ET:  America is set to default on its debts this coming Tuesday...at least that's what the papers say.  Right now there is no plan on the table in Congress that has any chance of passing.  From Bloomberg:

House Republican leaders, four days before a threatened U.S. default and facing stiff resistance within their ranks to raising the U.S. debt ceiling, plan to make a second try at passing legislation that is headed for a Senate roadblock.

Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner were forced to scrap action on the measure late last night. They are considering a rewrite for a second time this week after face-to- face meetings with recalcitrant lawmakers failed to yield the votes to push it through the House.

Skeptics concerned that the plan wouldn’t do enough to rein in the debt were insisting on conditioning part of the borrowing boost on congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

The measure should be amended to “something transformative that transcends election cycles and has some degree of permanency to it,” said Republican Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a freshman opponent of the measure who met with House leaders for three hours last night as they struggled unsuccessfully to build support for the bill.

The delay was a setback for Boehner and his leadership team, forcing them to delay a vote until today. They implored Republicans to back a measure that President Barack Obama’s advisers have said he would veto and Senate leaders promised to quickly defeat. 

COMMENT:  It is a complete mess.  The president, reduced to observer status in the cheap seats, has essentially been escorted out of the debate.  The Dems have no real plan to deal with our vast overspending. 

Speaker Boehner has done good work trying to fashion a compromise, while maintaining national defense, but has failed to convince enough of his Republican flock to back it.  His plan is far from perfect, but is the best one presented thus far that has any chance of being used as the basis for practical negotiations.

I admire much of what the Tea Party has done in bringing our profligacy to the fore as a major issue, but the Tea Party is a movement, not a political party.  It has no responsibility for governing, and acts accordingly.  Today, major Tea Party leaders have begun to threaten Republican congressmen who are supporting Boehner.  Real cute.  Real smart.  Why not divide the GOP even further and let Obama walk into a second term?  These are people who relish their own purity the night after they lose elections.  I'd prefer a little impurity and a victory in 2012.

As for a balanced budget amendment, it has no chance whatever.  It is something to be taken up later, when we see a realistic end to the current fiscal crisis.

There are some who argue that this is a golden moment to correct the mistakes of the past.  It is not.  It is a serious crisis that must be dealt with to avoid this nation going into default, prompting a possible new recession, and certainly prompting a downgrading of our credit status.  Then, after the immediate problem is solved, Republicans and Democrats of good will must get down to work, 'round the clock, and fashion long-term plans to save this country economically.  And Republicans must unite for victory. 

If we had a real president, this could have been avoided.  The presidency, as Jack Kennedy said, is the center of action.  It is the central pivot in time of crisis.  This president, a glorified town councilman with a golden voice, has abdicated. 

July 29, 2011       Permalink 

INTO THE ABYSS – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  A new, stunning economic report out this morning shows how bad things really are.  There's no getting around these numbers.

(Reuters) - The U.S. economy came perilously close to flat-lining in the first quarter and grew at a meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June period as consumer spending barely rose.

The Commerce Department data on Friday also showed the current lull in the economy began earlier than had been thought, with the growth losing steam late last year.

That could raise questions on the long held view by both Federal Reserve officials and independent economists that the slowdown in growth as the year started was largely the result of transitory factors.

Growth in gross domestic product -- a measure of all goods and services produced within U.S. borders - rose at a 1.3 percent annual rate. First-quarter output was sharply revised down to a 0.4 percent pace from a 1.9 percent increase.

Economists had expected the economy to expand at a 1.8 percent rate in the second quarter. Fourth-quarter growth was revised to a 2.3 percent rate from 3.1 percent.

"The second quarter disappointed, but the first-quarter downward revision is more disturbing. It advances the pangs of concern. The debt ceiling nonsense is not going to help us. We're already in an economy that is subpar," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

COMMENT:  This will only add to the gloom, and the uncertainty among those who hire people.  Translation:  Fewer job opportunities, less growth in the future. 

Add to this the antics on Washington over the debt ceiling.  The American people are getting the impression that we have 1) a dysfunctional president who doesn't even understand his job; 2) two political parties in Congress that are also dysfunctional and lack the statesmanship to get the job done.

One thing I fear here is the emergence of a third party on the right, like the Ross Perot faction in 1992, that will make it impossible for us to elect a new president next year.  I think this fear will grow if both parties continue to perform as they're performing right now.  That development could be a far greater danger to the GOP than anything else. 

Can you just imagine the result if this country reelects the hopelessly incompetent Obama next year?  Think about it.  ut the cash under the mattress.

July 29, 2011       Permalink 

FORT HOOD – AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  We are now learning more about the very close call we had yesterday at Fort Hood.  An alert gun shop clerk called authorities after observing a customer acting suspiciously.  That clerk may well have saved many lives.  From WaPo:

A U.S. soldier who was accused Thursday of planning to attack troops near Fort Hood, Tex., has told investigators that he was acting in support of Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who has been charged in the killing of 13 people at the base in 2009, according to congressional and federal officials.

Pfc. Naser Abdo, 21, was arrested in Killeen, Tex., after authorities said they discovered bombmaking materials in his motel room, as well as a copy of an article from the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, which is produced by the terrorist group’s Yemen affiliate.

The officials said Abdo was planning to set off bombs at locations outside the base where soldiers gather and to follow the explosions with gunfire...

....The emergence of another alleged plot to attack troops at the same base where Hasan is accused of striking may intensify fears that there is a growing terrorist threat from self-radicalized Americans and raise questions about whether the military can adequately identify internal threats. Hasan was arraigned in military court this month on capital murder charges but has not entered a plea.

The Washington Post has done a good, forthright job of reporting this story, and has given it prominence.  By contrast, a check of this morning's front page (online) of The New York Times does not find the story present at all.  Not at all.  A tale of two liberal newspapers – one trying to do the right thing and report the news, the other falling into disgrace once again.

July 29, 2011      Permalink