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JUNE 3,  2011

WE DON'T STAND BY OUR STORY – AT 11:12 P.M. ET:   Ah, it took only one day for the new New York Times executive editor to create a bit of an unwanted swirl.  You may remember, in our last episode, that the anointed Jill Abramson said that in her house, while growing up, The Times substituted for religion.  She also said that The Times was considered the absolute truth.

Well, as Red Buttons used to sing, strange things are happening.  Those quotes mysteriously disappeared from The Times yesterday afternoon.  The Politico reports: 

The web is abuzz after a quote from the New York Times’s future executive editor, Jill Abramson, in a Times news story on her appointment was missing in an updated version of the piece.

Abramson was quoted by Jeremy Peters on Thursday as saying “In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion. If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth.” In later versions published online, the quote had been removed. A spokeswoman for the Times said the quote was removed for “space” and after new quotes were added to the story.

Yeah, I'll bet.

POLITICO used the quote in a news story on Thursday as did Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto. Blogger Ann Althouse notes that all the publications that linked to the story, and used the quote, were in left in a bind -- having excerpted a quote from a story that no longer contained it.

Of the quote’s removal, National Review’s Jay Nordlinger wrote late Thursday: “That’s a tiny bit strange, isn’t it? I mean, Abramson’s words were not exactly scrubbable, or scrub-worthy.” In a follow-up, Taranto wrote that the editing process was the likely culprit for the quote’s removal, but added: “It's obvious that an editorial decision was made to ‘rectify’ a quote that made the Times look foolish.”

And it did indeed make The Times look foolish, not the best outing for its new highest-ranking news official.  Those quotes symbolize, to many, what is so fundamentally wrong with the paper today – the arrogance, the belief that it is somehow lofty and above us all, the sneering at religion. 

The Times will not improve until its current publisher, who hired Abramson, departs.  Many believe it will not improve, if it improves at all, until the paper is sold to outside interests, eliminating control by the current ruling family.  In the meantime, we will have to endure the silliness.

June 3, 2011      Permalink

WHEN YOU MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  Politics is a most unforgiving sport.   You may be allowed one mistake.  But make it again and the customers start to leave.

I have great respect for Rudy Giuliani.  He was a fine mayor of New York who did the one great thing needed to save the city – he took on serious crime and largely defeated it, showing that it could be done.

But Rudy made a mess of his presidential run in 2008, getting into the race much too late and never connecting with voters, despite his legendary reputation as the man who led New York through 9-11.  Now he seems to be making the same mistake.  From The Politico:

After spending the day in New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani says he has settled on a timeframe for making up his mind about entering the 2012 race.

Late summer “seems like a natural period of time,” the former New York City mayor said in an interview with POLITICO from New Hampshire. “I think during the summer people don’t pay as much attention.”

No, no, no, that's much too late.  If Rudy wants to run, he's got to get in within the next month, and start introducing himself once more to the American people.  His name doesn't have the impact it once did.  His contributions are a vague memory.  If he is to have any chance, he has to campaign long and hard.  This is bad strategy again.

“I have the advantage of very high name-recognition,” he added, explaining his decision to wait.

Rudy, your name recognition was higher in 2008.  Look at the good it did you.

Waiting until Labor Day would also Giuliani time to see how the field shakes out, including the effect from the heavily-watched Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, generally seen as the first major test of organizational strength.

Despite being the national frontrunner and leading fundraiser of 2008, Giuliani placed fourth in the 2008 New Hampshire primary. Looking back, he said he regretted not doing the right type of retail politicking the last time around, but argued that the “Live Free or Die” state — where independents are the largest group of voters and can cast ballots in party primaries — is a natural fit for him.

Then why did he place fourth?  He's not thinking presidential.  He's thinking mayoral.

I think Rudy is once again underestimating the challenge.  He seemed stunned when he did so poorly in 2008, in part because of a weak campaign, and in part because his personality often seemed more suited to local, rather than national office.

As Yogi Berra so eloquently put it, it's déjà vu all over again. 

June 3, 2011     Permalink

LIBYAN BREAKTHROUGH? – AT 9:13 A.M. ET:  One of the great questions during the "Arab Spring" is, who are the revolutionaries?  Are they true freedom fighters, or will they make matters worse?  Will we have, say, in Egypt, another Iran? 

We know that Egypt isn't going well.  Radical Islamists are rising in power, while the moderates and modernists who sparked the revolution are still trying to organize.  Egypt, the most important Arab country, seems to be moving closer to Iran, a frightening development.

But there is a story out today that gives guarded hope for the Libyan revolution.  We cannot confirm this story.  But, if true, and if the rebel forces described actually take power, we can have a major pro-Western advance in Libya.  But read with caution.  From AFP:

JERUSALEM (AFP) – French writer Bernard Henri Levy said he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel's premier saying they would seek diplomatic ties with Israel if they came to power.

Levy told AFP he passed on the verbal message from Libya's National Transitional Council during a 90-minute meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

"The main point was that the future Libyan regime would be moderate and anti-terrorist and will be concerned with justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel," Levy said.

"The future regime will maintain normal relations with other democratic countries, including Israel," he added.
Levy, who helped engineer France's recognition of Libya's fledgling rebel authority, visited the rebel-held Libyan city of Misrata last weekend.

He said on Thursday that Netanyahu "did not appear surprised" at the content of the Libyan message.

COMMENT:  In a story like this, it's fair to see Israel as a symbol of Western democracies.  If the rebels will seek normal relations with Israel, it's logical to assume that they would seek normal relations with us, a dramatic improvement from the Gadaffi days.

Again, no confirmation.  But, as the story points out, Levy has served as an intermediary between the Libyan rebels and France, and is apparently trusted by both.  This could be a major development.

June 3, 2011       Permalink

ANOTHER ECONOMIC SETBACK – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  The government jobs report issued a few minutes ago confirms the gloomy stories reported earlier in the week.  From The New York Times:

After several months of strong job growth, hiring slowed sharply in May, raising concerns once again about the underlying strength of the economic recovery.

The Labor Department reported on Friday that the United States added 54,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, following an increase of 232,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent from 9.0 percent in April.

While any job gains at all are welcome, the pace of job growth thus far has been too slow to reverse much of the damage wrought by the Great Recession, which has left more than 13 million unemployed workers in its wake. For the last few months economists had been predicting that the economy was finally gathering steam and that a sharper bounce-back was imminent, only to be disappointed again and again.

COMMENT:  The economy is in trouble, and the president is in trouble.  Often, in circumstances like this, the federal government starts spending a lot of money, hoping to "prime the pump," to get the economy moving again.  But there is no money.  We are deeply in debt.

Has the U.S. run out of options?  Will this mess become the new normal, with years of unemployment and underemployment ahead of us? 

I can't claim to know the answers, but I do know this:  Look around the world.  The countries that grow are the countries that make things, that create things.  But manufacturing in America has become almost a backwater.  I'm not sure we can revive unless we dramatically reverse that trend. 

But I've seen precious little interest in a revival of American muscle in the Obama administration.  They are obsessed with dubious, and unproved, environmental schemes and a piling on of regulations.

Our situation goes beyond partisanship.  We are in serious trouble, and we're not getting out of it.  The opportunities for the Republican Party to regain control and contribute to economic growth are vast...with the right candidate and program.  That means an innovative, creative economic policy, free of crony capitalism and Wall Street cover-ups, where Main Street counts and factories hum. 

June 3, 2011       Permalink

DOWNFALL – AT 8:13 A.M. ET:  Both ABC and CNN are reporting that John Edwards will be indicted on criminal charges today.  From ABC:

Unless a last-minute deal comes through, John Edwards will be indicted today on criminal charges after a two-year investigation seeking to connect the former senator to an allegedly illegal scheme to cover-up his extra-marital affair, ABC News has learned.

The case against Edwards, which called on more than 100 witnesses, will seek to prove that hundreds of thousands of dollars were allegedly used illegally to seclude and support his mistress Rielle Hunter, so Edwards could continue his campaign for the presidency in 2008.

Criminal charges are likely to be filed today against Edwards, unless a last minute deal is reached. His attorney Greg Craig arrived in North Carolina last night to consult with Edwards.

The federal investigation of Edwards began a few months after the National Enquirer had cornered him at a Beverly Hills hotel in October 2007. The supermarket tabloid began to run a series of stories alleging that an adulterous affair occurred between Edwards and Hunter, his former campaign worker.

COMMENT:  ABC is to be commended for acknowledging the work of the National Enquirer.  But isn't it remarkable that it took a supermarket tabloid to bring down a presidential candidate?

The Edwards case is a stunning example of the double standards in the media.  The same media that could send reporters to Alaska to rummage through Sarah Palin's garbage asked no serious questions about John Edwards, an avowed liberal, and John Kerry's running mate in 2004.  Edwards had made millions as a trial lawyer specializing in medical malpractice cases.  Now, there certainly are legitimate malpractice cases.  But Edwards had allegedly gotten rich by using junk science to destroy physicians, but the press never pursued any meaningful investigations.  Had Edwards been a conservative Republican, I doubt if he could have ever gotten away so unscathed.

It finally took a supermarket tabloid to expose this man.  The New York Times was busy trying to pin a romantic affair on John McCain, and other outlets made destroying George Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin their life's work.  Meanwhile, Edwards remained a major national figure. 

What if Edwards had made it to the White House?  Fortunately, he didn't.  But another man, about whom few serious questions were asked, did.  America is today paying the price for the scandalous press bias in favor of Barack Obama in 2008.  The media never learned its lesson.  It never learned because it doesn't want to learn.  It is in the bias business, the business of "making a difference," and it has no interest in changing.

June 3, 2011     Permalink

JUNE 2,  2011

MORE EXCITING PERSONNEL NEWS – AT 9:41 P.M. ET:  NBC News, striving for greatness, has put a new person on the payroll.  Can you stand the excitement?  From WaPo:

NEW YORK — NBC News is hiring former National Public Radio chief Vivian Schiller, who left this year in the midst of a political controversy, to run its digital operation.

Schiller resigned under pressure as NPR president and CEO earlier this year after a conservative activist caught a former NPR fundraiser calling the tea party movement racist. NPR’s management was also criticized last year for how it handled commentator Juan Williams’s firing.

I guess she's being hired for her judgment.

What a little world the mainstream media has become.  You'd think NBC News, with all the potential employees available to it, would avoid someone who could not deal with news bias at her former home.  One must assume that news bias does not much bother those who made this historic personnel decision.

At least now we have the internet, and we are not dependent on the intimate club within mainstream journalism.

June 2, 2011       Permalink

CHANGING OF THE GOD – AT 9:08 P.M. ET:  Bill Keller has stepped down from his deified perch as executive editor of The New York Times, the highest news position.  He will be replaced by Jill Abramson, a longtime Times news executive whose main claim to fame is having co-written "Strange Justice," a vicious hit job on Justice Clarence Thomas.  That's the way they like 'em at The Times.  Prove you're one of us.

Ms. Abramson's view of the world was expressed rather openly in The Times's story of her elevation:

Ms. Abramson, 57, said being named executive editor was “the honor of my life” and like “ascending to Valhalla” for someone who read The Times as a young girl growing up in New York. “We are held together by our passion for our work, our friendship and our deep belief in the mission and indispensability of The Times,” she said.

She also said:

"In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion."

Yuch.  Double yuch.  Triple yuch, going for quadruple.  I also worked at The Times, decades ago, and I never confused the Travel Section with the Book of Exodus.

Abramson attended the Ethical Culture School, which is several blocks from where we lived in Manhattan.  It's one of those pretentious places where people who believe in its "philosophy" walk around acting very superior.  I mean, just what does "ethical culture" mean?  They also seemed to have a lot of money.  Abramson then attended Harvard, about which nothing need be said.

Abramson will no doubt be interviewed on TV about her new adventure.  She speaks in that maddening pseudo-intellectual way, where words are elongated, and you can't wait for the sentence to end. 

But we wish her luck.  She is part of The Times's culture, so don't expect any great changes for the better.  It's sad because there's a great deal of talent at The Times, but it's too often misused in the service of a pretty clear agenda. 

June 2, 2011      Permalink

AND NOW SOME FACTS – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  Although facts aren't particularly respected in the political precincts of the left, many of us find them useful, even necessary.  We're so old-fashioned.

Former Director of Central Intelligence Michael Hayden tries to introduce the concept of factual evidence into the debate over whether enhanced interrogation techniques yielded useful information.  Very well argued.  From The Wall Street Journal:

So that there is no ambiguity, let me be doubly clear: It is nearly impossible for me to imagine any operation like the May 2 assault on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that would not have made substantial use of the trove of information derived from CIA detainees, including those on whom enhanced techniques had been used.

And...

...those who are prone to condemn the actions of those who have gone before (while harvesting the fruits of their efforts) might take pause. I've been personally asked about the appropriateness of waterboarding and—recognizing the immense challenge of balancing harsh treatment with saving innocent lives—usually respond: "I thank God that I did not have to make that decision." At the same time, I thank those who preceded me, made such decisions and thereby spared me the worst of the dilemma. Those who deny the usefulness of enhanced interrogation techniques might consider similar caution.

But if they cannot or will not, shouldn't they be true to their faith? If they truly believe that these interrogations did not and could not yield useful intelligence, they should demand that the CIA identify all the information derived directly or indirectly from enhanced interrogation. And then they should insist the agency destroy it. They should also insist that significant portions of the 9/11 Commission Report be rescinded, as it too was based on this data. This would be perfectly consistent with the interrogation deniers' transcendental faith that nothing of use could have come from enhanced interrogations after 9/11.

Strange that we have not heard such calls, even from the most ardent interrogation deniers. Perhaps they are not really like "birthers" and "truthers" after all. Perhaps, when all the public ideological posturing is done, and they are through attacking both their opponents' arguments and their character, they quietly concede to themselves that facts really do matter.

COMMENT:  Well said.  Director Hayden's arguments parallel those of Richard Miniter, the distinguished journalist and researcher I heard several nights ago, who made it clear that enhanced interrogation techniques produced more than half the information we have about Al Qaeda. 

June 2, 2011       Permalink

ANOTHER ECONOMIC BLOW – AT 9:05 P.M. ET:  We reported last night that assessments of the economy across the media had turned decidedly pessismistic.  Now, this morning, comes another indication that we're in the soup again.  From Bloomberg:

More Americans than forecast filled applications for unemployment benefits last week, signaling the labor market is struggling to pick up.

Jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 422,000 in the week ended May 28, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a drop in claims to 417,000, according to the median forecast. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls and those receiving extended payments decreased.

Some employers may be paring their workforce to rein in labor costs at a time energy prices remain elevated, adding to concern that job creation is slowing. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey project a report tomorrow may show payroll gains weakened in May, raising the risk that consumers curb spending, the biggest part of the economy.

“The labor market is a little less robust than it was,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “This is the eighth consecutive week of claims above 400,000, so it doesn’t look like the move up was an aberration.”

COMMENT:  We have not found a way out of this.  And, having been battered by hard times for three years, our resources for fighting unemployment are restricted.  The housing market, which many Americans looked to as their nest egg, struggles as it sinks further. 

Some economists believe that we may have years of this ahead of us.  Economic doldrums may, for millions, become the new reality.  And what does the president say?  He must've turned off the microphone when he outlined his economic plan.

June 2, 2011      Permalink

YEMEN FALLING APART – AT 8:50 A.M. ET:  The near civil war in Yemen is getting worse.  Why shold we care?  Because Yemen is one of the most important Al Qaeda bases in the world.  There is a frightening chance that Al Qaeda can actually wind up controlling Yemen.  From The New York Times:

SANA, Yemen — Heavy shelling north of Yemen’s capital threatened to close the main international airport Thursday as government troops and opposition tribesmen appeared to escalate bloody street battles that have pushed the country to the edge of civil war.

The airport, which lies roughly six miles north of the city, was open on Thursday and flights operated normally, the airport director, Naji Quddam, said in a statement, denying earlier news reports that it had closed.

But the main road to the airport from Sana remained dangerous to navigate because of government checkpoints, sporadic shelling and heavy fighting in the north of the city...

...The forces arrayed against the government have diverse and sometimes conflicting agendas, but the rising chaos appears to have emboldened them all, including the Yemen-based group that calls itself Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has become a major concern for the United States.

COMMENT:  But the U.S. isn't standing idly by.  President Obama has unleashed John O. Brennan, his chief counterterrorism adviser, who is rushing to the Mideast to consult on the situation.  You may know the illustrious Brennan as the guy who always says the wrong thing at a press conference following some major terror incident or counterterror action. 

We are probably helpless in this situation, as Obama seems to have lost any influence in the Mideast that he might have had.  So much for change we can believe in.

Like Syria, Yemen is a frightening situation in which the brutality of the regime might well be matched by the plans and ideologies of the regime's opponents.

June 2, 2011      Permalink

ROMNEY TAKES THE PLUNGE TODAY – AT 8:39 A.M. ET:  Mitt Romney officially enters the presidential race today.  I have had some real doubts about Romney, describing him as someone who looks like the guy in the Brooks Brothers underwear ad.  He failed to catch fire, or even make it to room temperature, his last time out in 2008.

But Romney is a serious man with a serious record as a businessman and governor of Massachusetts.  We'll certainly hear him out.  His speech today, part of which is reprinted in advance at The Politico, is well crafted:

Government under President Obama has grown to consume almost 40% of our economy. We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy. I will cap federal spending at 20% or less of the GDP and finally, finally balance the budget.

My generation will pass the torch to the next generation, not a bill.

I will insist that Washington learns to respect the constitution, including the 10th amendment. We will return responsibility and authority to the states for dozens of government programs – and that begins with a complete repeal of Obamacare.

From my first day in office my number one job will be to see that America once again is number one in job creation.

Okay, that's good.  Now let's see the rest of the campaign.  Right now Romney is ahead of the pack in most polls, but not by much.  However, he still doesn't beat Obama in most matchups.  It's early.  There may be others, like Governor Rick Perry of Texas, jumping in and changing the race.

I want the GOP race for the nomination to be exciting and newsworthy, taking attention from the Obama campaign, which will be expertly run, and a hall of mirrors.

June 2, 2011     Permalink