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JUNE 16,  2011

NEW WARNING ON AL QAEDA – AT 10:09 P.M. ET:  Only hours after Al Qaeda announced its new leader, our Department of Homeland Security sent out a major alert.   From Fox:

The Department of Homeland Security has sent out an internal alert warning that jihadist websites last week posted a "hit list" of American executives, officials and companies -- an alarming development that could mark the start of a new phase in terror plots.

The list, which covers dozens of names connected to the Iraq war, including executives at Halliburton and KBR, was compiled by users who vowed to "send explosive mail" to the "best target." The lists were published online around the same time American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn released a video in which he called on Muslims in the U.S. to kill Americans.

Security analysts believe the two messages are related and underscore a shift in terror strategy -- from top-down, mass-casualty events to smaller-scale attacks taken up, in some cases, by freelancing, lone-wolf jihadists.

The DHS bulletin, obtained by FoxNews.com, described how posts on the Arabic-language Ansar al-Mujahideen forum discussed "specific targets" for potential attack. The discussion originated on a more secure Al Qaeda-linked site known as the Shumukh forum.

COMMENT:  Please note that the hit list was posted last week, before Ayman al-Zawahri was named to the top Al Qaeda post and given the keys to the White Cave, their executive mansion.  There is some dispute as to whether this type of attack is favored by al-Zawahri, who is known as a big-operation guy.  Indeed, some analysts interviewed today said that they feared al-Zawahri may try a large attack against the United States, simply to prove his mettle.

So we have reason to be concerned both about small operations directed at, say, one prominent person, and the large mass attack identified with al-Zawahri.

June 16, 2011     Permalink

BULLETIN – AT 1:01 P.M. ET:  News organizations are reporting that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) will resign his seat in the House this afternoon.  This will probably end his career in politics, but open possibilities in fine-art photography. 

The move was inevitable.  Democrats were about to strip – no pun intended – Weiner of his committee assignments, leaving him powerless in the House.

But a sense of outrage must fill many observers, for the hypocrisy here is overwhelming.  Weiner's wife is a top aide to Hillary Clinton, and it's widely reported that the Clintons are "livid" over Weiner, and refuse to support or even talk to him.  Really?  It wasn't long ago that Bill Clinton was seeking support on a sex charge, and found it.  But he was the president.  Weiner is only a member of Congress.

And what about all those Democratic representatives who've gotten away with outrageous ethics violations?  Charlie Rangel still sits in the House, reelected.  Maxine Waters still sits, and would be reelected easily.  The late Congressman Gerry Studds of Massachusetts was indeed censured by the House for improper sexual activity with a House page, but remained seated.  Something isn't right here. 

June 16, 2011     Permalink

MORE ECONOMIC HURT – AT 9:20 A.M. ET: 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- For the tenth week in a row, an uncomfortably high number of Americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits.

There were 414,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits filed last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

While that was down 16,000 from a revised 430,000 initial claims filed the week before, it was still at a level economists often say is too high to bring down the unemployment rate.

Initial claims are used as a gauge of the job market, and when they're above 400,000, economists often interpret it as a sign of weakness. Initial claims have stayed above that level since early April.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of initial claims, calculated to smooth out volatility, totaled 424,750, the same as the week before.

COMMENT:  Another dose of reality.  The great fear is that we are in for long-term systemic unemployment, which has happened in European countries.  The administration appears to have no new economic ideas.

June 16, 2011      Permalink

SNIPPET – AT 8:25 A.M. ET: 

Alan Haberman, who ushered in the bar code, which has revolutionized supermarket checkouts, has died at 81, The New York Times reports.  Here is his gravestone:

You didn't think I could resist that, did you?

FLAVOR OF THE WEEK – AT 7:41 A.M. ET:  Next week the flavor will be rich, creamy Huntsman, as in Jon Huntsman, zillionaire businessman and former governor of Utah.

Very few people in America would recognize Huntsman walking down a street.  That will change.  But what will also change is indifference to him by the press and his opponents.  Who is Jon Huntsman?  From The Washington Examiner:

The lineup of candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination includes no one who can claim to be a moderate, but that will change next week when Jon Huntsman jumps into the race.

Huntsman, who was elected twice as governor of Utah and most recently served as President Obama's ambassador to China, plans to announce his presidential bid on Tuesday at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, with the Statue of Liberty towering behind him.

Huntsman chose the same spot where Ronald Reagan stood when he first announced his bid for the presidency more than three decades ago. Huntsman once served as an aide in the Reagan White House, but he is hardly a disciple of the late conservative icon. Huntsman is far more of a centrist on some social and environmental issues, which will distinguish him from the rest of the GOP field but will perhaps make his quest for the Republican nomination more difficult.

Yes, and the fact that he served as Obama's ambassador to China won't help him either.  You can already hear the cry "RINO" (Republican in Name Only.)

And there's other trouble brewing.  The opposition research has started.  As The LA. Times reports, there are some issues that Huntsman will have to confront:

Bloomberg News has an item Wednesday detailing how Huntsman Corp., the company Huntsman's father founded and where Huntsman once worked as a top executive, raked in revenue in China during Huntsman's tenure there as President Obama's ambassador.  China's economic might, and the issue of outsourcing jobs to Asia, promises to be a pressing topic during next year's campaign.

At the same time, the Associated Press reported that Huntsman Corp. recently paid $33 million to settle a price-fixing case -- while not admitting to any wrongdoing. While Huntsman worked for the chemical company during the period relevant to the lawsuit, the company said he wasn't involved in the suit in any way.

One of Huntsman's arguments for the GOP nomination will be his work in private enterprise as a job-creator. But the two articles illustrate the political risk that also comes with being associated so closely with an international conglomerate at a time when many Americans are struggling economically.

And like his rival Mitt Romney, Huntsman, by virtue of his family, has no up-by-the-bootstraps narrative to tell about a humble upbringing.

COMMENT:  Welcome to national politics, Jon.  I hope you haven't posted any photos on the internet.

June 16, 2011      Permalink

OBAMA SLIPS IN NEW POLL – AT 7:20 A.M. ET:  Gallup is reporting more erosion in the president's poll numbers, consistent with the findings of other polls: 

PRINCETON, NJ -- President Obama's job approval rating averaged 46% for the week ending June 12, a significant decline from his weekly averages for most of May and nearly back to the level before Osama bin Laden's death on May 1.

Thus, it appears the sustained rally in support for the president after the death of the Sept. 11 terror mastermind is largely over. The drop in Obama's approval rating coincides with an increase in Americans' pessimism about the economy. Economic confidence also increased after bin Laden's death but began to decline early this month, perhaps due to reports of anemic job growth and concerns about the slow pace of economic recovery.

And...

Among partisan groups, independents' approval rating of Obama dropped the most in the past week, from 47% to 42%, with a smaller decline among Democrats. Republicans' approval of Obama spiked to 21% during the first week after bin Laden's death from 10% in late April, before falling back to the 15% range, where it has held since.

COMMENT:  We should not assume that the president's numbers will stay down.  Any spurt upward in the economy will help him, as will kookiness in the Republican Party.  As we said last night regarding another poll, it is very early in the game.  While the president's numbers are weak, they are not impossible.  The Obama campaign will spend hundreds of millions on ads, and they will have mighty help from media.  This race is not in anyone's bag.

June 16, 2011       Permalink

PERSONNEL NEWS – AT 6:09 A.M. ET:  Al Qaeda has a new chief.  From Fox:

CAIRO -- Al-Qaida's longtime No. 2 leader, a doctor from a prominent Egyptian family who worked with Osama bin Laden for decades, has succeeded the slain terrorist as head of the global network, the group said Thursday.

"A doctor from a prominent Egyptian family..."  Certainly gives the lie to the leftist babble that terrorists are downtrodden souls struggling to overcome poverty, oppression and lack of Netflix subscriptions.

Ayman al-Zawahri, who turns 60 on Sunday, has long brought ideological fire, tactics and organizational skills to al-Qaida. The surgeon by training has promoted the use of suicide bombings and independent terror cells that have become the network's trademarks.

He is believed to be living somewhere near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and has appeared in dozens of videos and audiotapes in recent years, increasingly becoming the face of al-Qaida as bin Laden kept a lower profile.

The two terror leaders first crossed paths in the late 1980s in the caves of Afghanistan, where al-Zawahri reportedly provided medical treatment to bin Laden and other Islamic fighters battling Soviet forces. Their alliance would develop years later into the al-Qaida terror network blamed for America's worst terror attack in its history.

In a videotaped eulogy released earlier this month, al-Zawahri warned that America still faces an international community of Muslims that seek to destroy it.

COMMENT:  There is no word yet on salary and benefits, or use of the company plane.  But he does get the corner cave and a golden suicide belt, should he be eased out. 

June 16, 2011     Permalink

JUNE 15,  2011

ROMNEY GAINS – AT 9:27 P.M. ET:  A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows important new gains for Mitt Romney.  From The Politico:

Mitt Romney has put some distance between himself and the rest of the GOP field, claiming nearly a third of the primary vote in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

When tested against a group of nine other candidates, Romney takes 30 percent of registered GOP primary voters. His closest competitor is Sarah Palin, at 14 percent, followed by Herman Cain at 12 percent, Rick Perry at 8 percent, Ron Paul at 7 percent and Newt Gingrich at 6 percent. Four other candidates – Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman – are below 5 percent.

In a smaller field of six candidates – himself, Paul, Bachmann, Santorum, Gingrich and Pawlenty – Romney's lead grows even more formidable, to 43 percent.

COMMENT:  It's early.  The poll also shows that President Obama would win, if the election were held today.  But, as some political analyst once said, if the election were held today I'd be very surprised.

Romney is moving into frontrunner status.   He now has a target on his back, and the other candidates will soon start sniping at it.  I wouldn't take these early polls too seriously.   Besides, this poll was taken before Monday night's debate.

June 15, 2011       Permalink 

WHAT DOES CANADA KNOW ABOUT BILL AYERS? – AT 8:54 P.M. ET:  Canada is a pretty liberal place, but it is barring Obama pal and radical academic Bill Ayers from entering the country.  This is a serious step, and raises questions as to what Canada knows about this man.  Obama, during the 2008 campaign, acted as if he hardly knew Ayers, but subsequent reporting by those brave enough to do it suggests that the relationship was a lot stronger than we'd been led to believe.

Recently, Ayers retired from the University of Illinois, but was denied some of the privileges of a retired professor due to the intervention of one of the children of Robert F. Kennedy.  Ayers had included Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, in a list of those to whom he'd dedicated a book.  This man, Ayers, was permitted to teach our children.

The Canada part of this is intriguing.  From the National Post of Canada:

Former American radical Bill Ayers has once again been barred from entering Canada.

Mr. Ayers was scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the Worldview Conference on Media and Higher Education this Thursday in Toronto. Conference organizers say Mr. Ayer’s refused entry should “should raise red flags for citizens concerned with free and open debate.”

“Bill Ayers is a respected academic, and in no way a threat to the peace and security of Canada. There is no reason why he should be kept out,” said Mark Langer, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), who is hosting the event.

The fact that he's a "respected academic" should raise questions about who wins respect in today's academic world.

Mr. Ayers was barred from entering Canada in 2009 after touching down at Toronto City Centre Airport. At the time, he said he had entered Canada dozens of time before without incident.

Mr. Ayers has hired Canadian and American lawyers in unsuccessful attempts to lobby the Canadian Border Services Agency for passage into the country. Advised by his lawyers that he would likely be held at the border, he did not attempt a crossing this time around.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, a radical group that collaborated on a series of bombings aimed at banks, monuments and government buildings, including the Pentagon and US capitol.

Nobody was killed in Weather Underground attacks, although members did paralyze at least one man.

And...

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, foreign nationals are barred from entering Canada if they were involved “in criminal activity, in human rights violations or in organized crime.”

COMMENT:  I'd like to know more about this, but I'd also like to know more about the relationship between Ayers and Obama.  One writer, Jack Cashill, has concluded from an impressive study that Ayers wrote one of Obama's two books.  I have no independent way to confirm that, but the argument is strong.

We can't depend on the mainstream media to look more deeply into Ayers, whose wife, Bernardine Dohrn, was also an extremist, and was on the lam for years.  She teaches at Northwestern University. 

Do you know who's teaching your children?

June 15, 2011      Permalink

KING HAS BACKBONE – AT 10:27 A.M. ET:  Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, has withstood the predictable cries of "racist," and is pursuing his investigation into the radicalization of American Muslims.  From WaPo:

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, thinks Muslim Americans are being radicalized in U.S. prisons, and he’s promised a “deliberate and thoughtful examination of the issue” during a hearing on Wednesday.

To which detractors say: impossible.

As was the case with his March hearing on the radicalization of Muslim Americans, the detractors are accusing the congressman of scare-mongering. They see this week’s hearing as being rooted in no more than Islamophobia.

"Islamophobia" is the big word on the political left these days.  If you want to look into guys who wear suicide belts, you're "Islamophobic." 

But as King told Fox News on Monday, there’s “absolutely nothing wrong” with inmates converting to Islam. “The problem,” he said, “is when you get radical Muslims. You get radical chaplains who then radicalize them and turn them toward terrorism or turn them toward violence.”

King is hardly the first person to voice of concern about the radicalization of Muslims in American prisons. FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee six years ago that prisons were “fertile ground” for Islamic extremists. Even before that, in 2003, Sen. Charles Schumer, the Democrat of New York, expressed concern that U.S. inmates were being recruited by followers of the ultraconservative brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.

But for critics, the issue is that the radicalization of American Muslim inmates should not be seen apart from the radicalization of inmates by other groups. And experts note that in U.S. prisons, for generations, there’s been plenty of radicalization to go around, from the Aryan Brotherhood to the Latin Kings to the Black Liberation Army.

That's a red herring.  These other groups require investigation as well.  But that should not deter Peter King.  Radicalization of Muslims is of a different order, in that it involves possible linkages with foreign groups and foreign nations, and often involves extreme plots.

King is to be commended over the way he's stood up to the abuse, and the usual leftist vocabulary.  Since 9/11 he has been one of the stalwarts in the fight against terrorism. 

June 15, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET – AT 9:46 A.M. ET: 

From London's Telegraph:  An American town is preparing to celebrate a light bulb that has been glowing more-or-less continuously since 1901.  The four watt bulb, installed in a fire station in Livermore, California, has been declared the oldest known working light bulb by the Guinness Book of World Records.

And imagine, our greatest challenge now is to get the bulb over Barack Obama's head to stay on for more than five minutes a day.

BLEAK ECONOMY – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  Not only are we facing an employment crisis, but those who are employed are finding it harder and harder to afford basic goods.  Prices are rising faster than forecast.  From Bloomberg:

The cost of living in the U.S. rose more than forecast in May reflecting higher prices for everything from autos to hotel rooms, signaling raw-material expenses are filtering through to other goods and services.

The consumer-price index increased 0.2 percent, compared with the 0.1 percent median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The so-called core measure, which excludes more volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.3 percent, the biggest increase since July 2008.

Higher input prices are leading companies like McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) to try to pass cost increases onto customers strained by more expensive gasoline and 9.1 percent unemployment. At the same time, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s has repeated that the jump in commodity expenses will prove temporary.

“We’re seeing a broad-based bleed through of energy and commodity price pressures into components throughout the core,” said John Herrmann, a senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets in Boston who correctly forecast the gain in core inflation. “The Fed has to be more adamant about their credibility as an inflation fighter.”

Can America reelect a president who's presiding over all this damage?  Well, some card-carrying members of the pundit conspiracy say that Obama is a shoo-in.  They also say that broccoli-powered cars are ready to go, especially the convertibles. 

What an opportunity for Republicans.  Don't blow it, guys...and gals.

June 15, 2011       Permalink

PERRY SPEAKS – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  One of the big questions in the GOP today is, "Will Rick Perry run?"  Perry, the job-creating governor of Texas, is, in addition to the positive reviews of Michele Bachmann's debate performance, the buzz-man of the week.

Perry spoke in New York last night.  The speech was much anticipated, for one of the concerns about Perry is whether he can play well outside Texas, whether he's "national" rather than "local."  He's created jobs.  That's true.  But he's also rough around the edges, Texas-style, and insists on dredging up social issues that most Americans, in a time of economic stress, may wish to put aside for a time.  Next year's election will be won among independents, not movement conservatives or movement liberals.

Perry's speech in New York didn't address concerns about him.  It was a well-delivered battle cry.  From The Wall Street Journal:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a gathering of Republicans in New York City Tuesday night that he’s proud of driving liberals out of the Lone Star State.

“Looking around Texas, there’s a few unhappy people there – generally we refer to them as liberals – which I happen to think is a really good indicator of our success because we don’t have many of them left,” joked Mr. Perry as he delivered the keynote address at the New York Republican County Committee’s annual Lincoln Dinner.

“I’m proud to call myself a conservative,” Mr. Perry said. “Not only am I proud to be a Texan, I’m proud to be a conservative…because conservatives have won the war of ideas.”

In recent weeks, buzz has intensified about the possibility of Mr. Perry entering the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. At Tuesday night’s dinner, Mr. Perry didn’t discuss the possibility of launching a presidential bid, but he had said earlier in the day that he’s giving the idea “appropriate thought.”

He told the crowd at the Lincoln Dinner that he was pleased to replace Donald Trump as the keynote speaker after the real estate mogul announced he wouldn’t pursue the White House next year.

“I find it kind of ironic tonight that I’m getting to stand here instead, if you would, of The Donald,” he said, referring to Mr. Trump. “That’s pretty cool….He’s known for saying, ‘You’re fired!’ We’re known for saying, ‘You’re hired. That’s what we do in Texas.”

And that's a good line.  We'll have to hear much more, though.  Candidates for the GOP nomination have to run to the right, but in the general election they must appeal to the middle.  The major thrust of Obama's brilliant but deceptive 2008 campaign was to portray himself as the centrist that he is not.  Perry wouldn't have to go quite that far, but he should keep in mind the plight of Rudy Giuliani, who just couldn't travel beyond New York.

June 15, 2011      Permalink

OUR PAKISTANI ALLIES AT WORK – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  The Pakistanis are notorious double dealers, but this takes the prize.  From Fox:

WASHINGTON -- Pakistan's intelligence service has arrested the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe Usama bin Laden's compound before the U.S. raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader, as well as a "handful" of other Pakistanis, a U.S. official said late Tuesday.

In Pakistan, a Western official confirmed a New York Times report that five of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the CIA before the May 2 bin Laden raid were arrested by Pakistan's top military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as ISI.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

The Times, in an article posted on its website late Tuesday, said the detained informants included a Pakistani army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in the weeks before the raid.

COMMENT:  This will certainly encourage other Pakistanis to work with the United States in the war against terror.  You'd think the Pakistanis would be smart enough to look the other way on something like this, and show that they are true allies.  The problem is, they're not.  And it's a problem, considering that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, that can come back to bite us in the worst way.

June 15, 2011     Permalink