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JUNE 11,  2011

COMMON SENSE IN BRITAIN – AT 10:25 P.M. ET:  With our own government in the grips of environmental trendiness, we aren't fully aware of the degree to which the British government is similarly stricken.  Now, a leading Tory is calling for an end to the adolescent silliness.  We hope to see more cries like this here.  From London's Daily Mail:

The Coalition’s obsession with climate change is damaging Britain’s recovery from recession, former Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson warns today.

That's chancellor of the exchequer, their equivalent of secretary of the Treasury.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Lord Lawson delivers a scathing assessment of David Cameron’s so-called ‘green agenda’ and says it is ‘time this Government grew up’.

Lord Lawson, one of the most respected Tory figures of recent decades, accuses the Prime Minister of risking Britain’s economy to make a ‘symbolic’ point.

In a devastating verdict he writes: ‘The Government’s highly damaging decarbonisation policy, enshrined in the absurd Climate Change Act, does not have a leg to stand on. It is intended, at massive cost, to be symbolic: To make good David Cameron’s ambition to make his administration “the greenest government ever”.

‘My dictionary defines green as “unripe, immature, undeveloped”.’

Hear, hear, Lord Lawson!

His comments came after former Civil Service chief Lord Turnbull accused ministers and officials of pandering to global warming ‘alarmists’ and piling huge, unnecessary costs on ordinary families.

Lord Lawson, Chancellor under Margaret Thatcher, goes further today, saying that plastering Britain with wind farms will push up bills to families and businesses without producing any real benefits. The switch to ‘low-carbon’ energy is expected to add £200 to annual energy bills.

He writes: ‘This price increase would be economically damaging at the best of times; and these are not the best of times.’

COMMENT:  Some common sense from across the pond.  What good will a "green" economy be if it plunges a country into poverty and want?  We hope Lawson's clear-mindedness makes it to our shores, where even the Republican frontrunner, Mitt Romney, has spoken favorably of "climate change" trendiness.  American energy prices are soaring at just the moment that low prices are needed to restart the economy.  The president seems completely out of touch.

June 11, 2011      Permalink 

SNIPPET – AT 10:20 P.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON — Under fierce pressure from fellow Democrats to resign in a sexting scandal, Rep. Anthony Weiner announced Saturday he was entering professional treatment at an undisclosed location and requested a leave of absence from Congress.  An aide for the embattled New York lawmaker made the disclosure in a statement shortly after several Democratic party leaders demanded he quit for exchanging messages and photos ranging from sexually suggestive to explicit with several women online.

Why don't they just take away his computer, his password, and, most important, his digital camera?  Poof.  He's cured.

THE ELUSIVE GOD PARTICLE, AND A LESSON FOR US ALL – AT 11:40 A.M. ET:  Physicists have been searching for the so-called "God particle," the basic building block of matter, also called the Higgs boson.  They have suffered a setback in that search, and we are getting a good lesson in how science actually proceeds, a lesson we can apply to other national discussions that are allegedly based on "scientific findings."  From Fox:

The quest for the elusive Higgs boson seemed over in April, when an unexpected result from an atom smasher seemed to herald the discovery of the famous particle -- the last unproven piece of the physics puzzle and one of the great mysteries scientists face today.

Researchers were cautious, however, warning that it would take months to verify the finding.

Their caution was wise.

Scientists with the Tevatron particle accelerator at Chicago's Fermilab facility just released the results of a months-long effort by the lab's brightest minds to confirm the finding. What did they find? Nothing.

"We do not see the signal," Dmitri Denisov, staff scientist at Fermilab, told FoxNews.com. "If it existed, we would see it. But when we look at our data, we basically see nothing."

"At this point I'd say the chances are 50/50 for the Higgs to exist at all," he said.

The results -- submitted Friday to the science journal Physical Review Letters -- are a heartbreaking setback for scientists and armchair experimenters worldwide, who have been following the particle-physics treasure hunt like a baseball fan monitoring stats.

COMMENT:  Sometimes "science" succeeds, and sometimes it doesn't.  It is a constant series of investigations, proceeding on evidence, experimentation, and observation.  Compare please with our discussion about "climate change," in which we are assured by the hustling classes that the science is "settled." 

There is no such thing as settled science.  Science, by its nature, is never settled.  And it certainly doesn't rest on computer models that try to project weather patterns 50 years from now.  The experiments at Fermilab have produced disappointment, not certainty.  Fortunately, Al Gore was not calling the play by play. 

This is a cautionary tale.  Politicians and real scientists don't mix very well.  I'd rather listen to the scientists, especially those, like Dr. Denisov, who are immediately prepared to tell us what they don't know.

June 11, 2011       Permalink 

OH, JUST WHAT WE NEED – AT 11:12 A.M. ET:  Is there any end to our problems with our "Pakistani allies"?  Apparently not.  Get this, from WaPo:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Twice in recent weeks, the United States provided Pakistan with the specific locations of insurgent bomb-making factories, only to see the militants learn their cover had been blown and vacate the sites before military action could be taken, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

Overhead surveillance video and other information was given to Pakistani officials in mid-May, officials said, as part of a trust-building effort by the Obama administration after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid early last month. But Pakistani military units that arrived at the sites in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan on June 4 found them abandoned.

U.S. officials say they do not know how the operation was compromised. But they are concerned that either the information was inadvertently leaked inside Pakistan or insurgents were warned directly by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI.

COMMENT:  I don't think Americans yet realize how serious the situation with Pakistan has come.  Pakistan is a nuclear power.  Its security services have been influenced by Al Qaeda and the Taliban.  While Pakistan assures us that its nukes are secure, we really can't be sure.  Even if the weapons are disassembled, their nuclear cores could be stolen if security falls apart.  Dirty bombs can be made.

And Pakistan is a direct threat to India, the world's largest democracy.

Pakistan housed Osama bin Laden a few blocks from its equivalent of West Point, then claimed they didn't know he was there. 

We are about to draw down our troops in neighboring Afghanistan.  That will give encouragement to those trying to destabilize Pakistan.  And not far away is Iran, which knowledgeable authorities now say may be within months of a nuclear weapon.

Have a nice day.  I hope the president is interested.

June 11, 2011       Permalink

SARAH ON SATURDAY – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  There's still plenty of buzz about the 24,000 Sarah Palin e-mails released by the state of Alaska yesterday.  And a lot of the buzz has to do with the fact that the whole incident is a bust.  Nothing of significance has been found, despite the fevered efforts of mainstream journalists, some of whom have actually asked for the help of readers to go through the messages.

Could this mess actually help Sarah Palin?  Thomas Lifson, at American Thinker, believes it can, and gives us our quote of the day, pointing out that Bill Clinton's popularity actually went up during the impeachment process that dominated his second term:

It seems incongruous to put Bill Clinton in the same sentence as Sarah Palin, but the political jujitsu the former president accomplished when struggling with the damning evidence of Oval Office misconduct and perjury in its cover-up has a lesson. The American public loves underdogs and despises bullies. Polls asking the public about various occupations inevitably find that politicians and media rank near the bottom in terms of credibility and likability. President Clinton and his attack dogs recognized that the impeachment-minded GOP House could be demonized, in effect spray painting him with Teflon® against their attack.

One can at least wonder if something of the same process might be at work with Mrs. Palin. She has demonstrated time and again an ability to confound her haters with unorthodox tactics, turning their fury back against them. The feeding frenzy in Juneau offers her another opportunity to turn the tables on those who seek to destroy her.

COMMENT:  Lifson makes a good point, although I hasten to add that the press was on Bill Clinton's side, and isn't on Sarah Palin's.  However, I hope the public is on Sarah's side.  Perhaps voters will notice the intensity of the hatred directed at Sarah, while Barack Obama gets a free pass on almost everything.

But again I express my frustration that Sarah resigned her governorship.  It simply deflated her stature.  She hasn't regained it.  I think the future is uncertain, but some public outrage at what the press is trying to do to her would at least be encouraging.

June 11, 2011     Permalink

JUNE 10,  2011

SYRIAN NIGHTMARE CONTINUES – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  As NATO continues its bombing campaign in Libya, an equivalent tragedy continues in the much more important nation of Syria.   There are "condemnations" from other nations, but little else:

AMMAN - Syrian helicopter gunships fired machine guns to disperse a large pro-democracy protest in the town of Maarat al-Numaan on Friday, witnesses said, a dangerous escalation of force at the end of a day in which 32 civilians were reported killed by Assad's forces across the country.

The gunship use was the first reported use of air power to quell protests in Syria's uprising.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that helicopters fired at the town after security forces on the ground killed five protesters, but said no killings were reported in the assault by the helicopters.

Also on Friday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed a report by Kuwait news agency KUNA that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been trying to call Assad on Thursday but was told that the president was "not available."

He added that Ban had been trying to speak with Assad all week but was unable to get through to him.

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal have asked the UN Security Council to condemn Assad, though veto-wielding Russia has said it would oppose such a move.

Denouncing the Syrian government's actions, the White House said Friday's "appalling violence" had led the United States to back the European draft resolution at the United Nations. "The Syrian government is leading Syria on a dangerous path," the White House said.

COMMENT:  Take that, Assad.  Resolutions!  Phone calls!  How can you hold out against such iron-fisted condemnation?

Assad shows no signs of stepping down.  And in Libya, Gadaffi continues to hold out.  Maybe they're both inspired by the "I won't go" spirit of Anthony Weiner. 

But these dictators must be pushed out.  If they win, and remain, the West will be seen as having suffered a major defeat, and the future for democracy in the Mideast will be bleak.  (It's already marginal.)  Obama, in particular, must disprove the notion that he's a weak, vacillating president, a man who makes Jimmy Carter look like Richard the Lionheart. 

The Arab spring is turning into a long, hot summer.

June 10, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET – AT 10:37 P.M. ET: 

After a day of intense searching through Sarah Palin's e-mails, just released by the state of Alaska, highly skilled representatives of the nation's mighty media have concluded 1) that she liked to get away from the state capital at Juneau, 2) that she suspected media bias, 3) that she took her job as governor seriously, and 4) that she was loyal to her staff.

It is understood that these bombshells will be the basis of a Hollywood movie starring the late Susan Hayward as Sarah and Clark Gable as Todd, and introducin' Judy Garland as young Bristol.   

MORE ECONOMIC SIGNS – AT 10:22 A.M. ET:  Given the economic picture, it's hard to see how President Obama can even run for releection.  How can he show his face?  Consider this:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Falling real estate prices are eating away at home equity. The percentage of their homes that Americans own is near its lowest point since World War II, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. The average homeowner now has 38 percent equity, down from 61 percent a decade ago.

The latest bleak snapshot of the housing market came as mortgage rates hit a new a low for the year, falling below 4.5 percent for a 30-year fixed loan. But even alluring rates have failed to deliver any lift to the depressed housing industry.

The Fed report is based on data from the first quarter of this year. Another report last week found that home prices in big cities have fallen to 2002 levels.

Normally, home equity rises as you pay off the mortgage. But home values have fallen dramatically since the bubble in prices burst in 2006. So many homeowners are losing equity even though the outstanding balance on the loan is getting smaller.

COMMENT:  Remember the days when a house was a home?  A place to live?  A place to raise a family?  In recent decades Americans have been sold a fast hustle – that "real estate" was a great investment, that buying a house or apartment was really a financial move, and that it was a "sure thing."

There are no sure things.  There never have been.  A lot of Americans are feeling pain because they bought into the hype.

Oh, by the way, there's one area of the country where real-estate is actually doing quite well – Washington, D.C.  Big government, you know.  The machine needs people, and people need homes.  But what happens when the GOP takes over and starts cutting those federal agencies?  All those new government types will learn that, in Washington, as well as the rest of the country, there are no guarantees.

June 10, 2011       Permalink

SCANDALOUS – AT 9:30 A.M. ET:  This story has been making the rounds on the internet and beyond, and the reaction from our side, and I think even from responsible precincts of the other side, has been shock and embarrassment. 

The state of Alaska is about to make public thousands of e-mails from Sarah Palin's time as governor.  Now, these will probably turn out to be routine, and more boring than an Al Gore speech on global warming.   But to the mainstream media, this is an opportunity to pounce, to read every word, hoping to find one more knife to jab into Sarah's back.  I have rarely seen such hatred directed at a political figure, and I've never seen it directed at a woman in politics.

Scraping the bottom of journalistic practice, both The New York Times and the Washington Post have actually asked for the help of their readers – I am not making this up – to go through all the e-mails, since they apparently are no longer capable of doing their own research.  That The Times would ask this does not really stun me, as it's sunk so low.  But I'm surprised that The Post, which has shown improvement, would participate in something this amateurish.

Fine talk-show host Mike Scully alerted me to this good summary of the scandalous development, from NRO:

Talk about citizen journalism at the Washington Post and the New York Times! First the Post:

Over 24,000 e-mail messages to and from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska’s governor will be released Friday. That’s a lot of e-mail for us to review so we’re looking for some help from Fix readers to analyze, contextualize, and research those e-mails right alongside Post reporters over the days following the release.

We are limiting this to just 100 spots for people who will work collaboratively in small teams to surface the most important information from the e-mails. Participants can join from anywhere with a computer and an Internet connection. Read more about how it will work.

If you need inspiration before getting started, take a look at what to expect from the e-mail drop. For micro-updates as tomorrow unfolds, check out our new Twitter feed.

And speaking of copycat journalism, here’s the Gray Lady:

On Friday, the State of Alaska will release more than 24,000 of Sarah Palin’s e-mails covering much of her tenure as governor of Alaska. Times reporters will be in Juneau, the state capital, to begin the process of reviewing the e-mails, which we will be posting on nytimes.com starting on Friday afternoon E.D.T.

We’re asking readers to help us identify interesting and newsworthy e-mails, people and events that we may want to highlight. Interested users can fill out a simple form to describe the nature of the e-mail, and provide a name and e-mail address so we’ll know who should get the credit. Join us here on Friday afternoon and into the weekend to participate.

Speaking very personally, I am so proud of our nation’s great newspapers, enlisting the aid of our tovarishes from coast to coast in this very worthy undertaking. For Sarah Palin — currently feigning to be a “private citizen” — poses such a threat to the Peoples’ Republic that she simply must be stopped by any means necessary.

Won’t you please help us to destroy her? What — you got something better to do?

COMMENT:  I do hope that there is an enormous backlash against this sleazy gimmick.  And maybe, just maybe, we can get some of our liberal friends to reflect on what they've done.

There are days I'm embarrassed to say that I once worked for The New York Times.

June 10, 2011       Permalink

RUMBLIN' FOR RICK? – AT 9:04 A.M. ET:  The man of the hour...or the next five minutes...in the GOP appears to be Governor Rick Perry of Texas.  Eyes beyond Texas are upon him, and an upcoming speech in the anti-Texas, New York City, will be closely watched.

Inevitably, those of us who do this kind of abnormal work are reading up on Rick Perry, trying to assess the pros and cons.  There are both, in abundance.

He has broken all longevity records in Texas gubernatorial history, as the state's longest serving governor ever, having been lieutenant governor and rising to the governorship when George W. Bush became president.  He is head of the Republican Governors Association.  Under his leadership, Texas has achieved the best job-growth record of any state, an absolutely priceless argument in next year's election.  He's a spectacular campaigner, winning come-from-behind elections.

But there are negatives, and they can sink him:  He is seen as a rigid ideologue, winning in a heavily Republican state.  He would need independents in a general election.  He has never campaigned outside Texas.  He is controversial within his own party, having been challenged for the gubernatorial nomination last time out by Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, whom he defeated.  (Former President George H.W. Bush supported Hutchison.) 

His economic policies, while spectacularly successful, are often viewed as cold.  Someone remarked that he makes George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" actually look compassionate.  He wears his religion on his sleeve, often bumping up those for whom separation of church and state is an important issue.  He has made some widely publicized gaffes – such as seeming to support secession of Texas from the Union.  As several observers noted, we've been there before, in 186l, and it didn't work out well. 

Perhaps Perry's most controversial act was to require young girls, by executive order, to be vaccinated with a new vaccine that fights cervical cancer.  The order was overturned by the legislature.  It raised conservative as well as liberal eyebrows because it was such a blatant intervention in private lives.

So, there are factors on both sides – a superb economic record as governor as opposed to an image as an ideologue.  Barack Obama, the Slick Willy of the new century, can make himself look like a moderate standing next to Perry in a debate, and that is a danger.

We'll be watching.

June 10, 2011       Permalink

A MAJOR EVENT? – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  As readers know, this site has argued that the GOP should skip a generation and look to its young bench for a presidential candidate for 2012, upsetting the usual Republican practice of nominating the next guy in line, dead or alive, or in between.  One of the names we've boosted is freshman Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.  So this item from RealClearPolitics caught our attention:

Florida Republican Marco Rubio, the only freshman senator yet to deliver a maiden speech on the Senate floor, will take that step on Tuesday afternoon, according to his advisers.

For Rubio, a rock star of both the GOP and the tea party movement, the moment is an important one. The young Cuban-American is seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, and his victory in November was arguably the biggest of the midterm elections.

Rubio's team will release a video to supporters tonight describing the speech, which he calls important to his Senate career because he will explain why he ran for the office and what he wants to do in his tenure. For a 40-year-old with unlimited national potential, the speech is certain to draw oodles of attention.

Maiden speeches are rarely noticed.  This is a big deal, and Rubio isn't hesitant about increasing the size of the deal.

The senator wrote the speech himself and edits are still being made, but in the video he notes that it comes at an important time, explaining, "We're debating the future of our country."

And you may be it, fella.

He goes on to note that the United States has been the most exceptional nation "in all of human history," adding, "We have to decide if we want to continue to be that or decline."

The speech will be viewable on C-SPAN, which carries coverage of the Senate, but Rubio's team also will offer it on his website and Facebook page.

His family, including his wife and four children, will travel to Washington next week for the address. They will stay for the entire week.

In other words, plenty of photo ops.

Rubio has sworn off running for president in 2012.  But most of them play that game.  He is timing his speech right at the beginning of the election season.  He could have made it months ago.  He is making the speech into a major media event.  That doesn't sound like a guy trying to avoid the presidential spotlight.

He will of course continue to deny, but I suspect he'll also be assessing whether a "wanting of Marco" will start to build. 

He is also being mentioned as everyone's choice for vice president, a possibly smart move that could introduce him to the American people and make him a household name for the 2016 election.  But, as a vice presidential candidate, not in control of the overall campaign, things can also go wrong.  The recent history of vice presidential nominees hasn't been encouraging.  President Mondale can talk about that.  As can President Gore.  As for President John Edwards, nothing need be said.

Watch the speech.  Rubio is an Obama-level speaker, which is one reason for all the attention.

June 10, 2011     Permalink