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OCTOBER 9,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:10 P.M. ET:

I DON'T THINK SO – An Iranian military commander has declared the "Occupy Wall Street" protests as the start of an "American spring" that will topple the capitalistic system.  The esteemed general might contemplate the difference between the way we handle demonstrators and the way his own regime handles them.  So far we haven't seen the U.S., Army in the streets shooting people for protesting, nor will we see it.  Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, meanwhile, has denounced the "horrible" suppression of the demonstrators in New York, something we hadn't frankly noticed.

MORE GRIEF FOR EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS – We reported earlier today on the growing fear of Egypt's Christians that anti-Christian Islamists are gaining power.  Tonight comes word that 19 people have been killed in clashes between Christian demonstrators and a combination of Muslims and military forces.  The Christians had been protesting recent attacks on churches when they were apparently attacked themselves.  The potential for major sectarian violence is growing in Egypt, and in several other Arab countries where minority Christian populations live.  Any interest, Mr. Obama?

"FAST AND FURIOUS" GROWING SLOWLY AND SURELY – The "Fast and Furious" scandal, involving a screwball attempt to release guns to be sold to Mexican drug cartels in the hope that tracking them would lead to cartel leaders, is growing, with a House committee planning to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder, who claims he knew nothing about the operation before news of it went public.  The scandal involves the fact that so many high-powered guns got loose and have apparently been used in murders.   We learned today that some 40 assault weapons from the program have been found in the home of a feared cartel leader in Juarez.

DISGRACEFUIL, IF TRUE – A conservative journalist named Patrick Howley, associated with the American Spectator, claims he "infiltrated" a group of radical leftist protesters outside the Air and Space Museum in Washington, claiming to be an ally, and instigated the clashes that led to the museum's closing yesterday.  If true, Howley should be dismissed immediately.  We have to practice what we preach on our side, and journalistic misconduct is absolutely unacceptable.  Let's see how this develops.  No excuses, please.  Conservatives historically have been far stricter about misbehavior in their ranks than have liberals, and we want that record to continue.

October 9, 2011       Permalink 

LESSON FROM THE GIPPER – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:  A lesson from the Reagan administration just how sick our economy has become under Obama.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

...the economy is producing far fewer jobs than you'd expect in a typical recovery from recession. Over the past six months the U.S. economy has created an average of 72,000 jobs a month, roughly half the pace needed to chip away at the jobless rate. The hardest hit have been minority workers, with the jobless rate for blacks still 16%, Hispanics 11.3%, and teens 24.6%.

As it happens, the biggest one-month jobs gain in American history was at exactly this juncture of the Reagan Presidency, after another deep recession. In September 1983, coming out of the 1981-82 downturn, American employers added 1.1 million workers to their payrolls, the acceleration point for a seven-year expansion that created some 17 million new jobs.

The difference between then and now isn't the magnitude of the recessions but the policies the U.S. pursued to restore growth. In the Reagan expansion, spending and tax rates were cut, regulations were eased, and government was in retreat. Today, we've had a spending and regulatory boom, the threat of higher tax rates, and a general antibusiness political climate. Policies have consequences.

COMMENT:  They certainly do.  But how can you have wise policies when we have a president whose election was heavily influenced by press coverage, who was never vetted, and who was elected largely because of cultural factors?

I think the best we can hope for under Obama is years of economic stagnation, European style.  And yet, Americans may reelect this president, again because of cultural factors.  If they do, this country will be severely hurt, and may become the second-rate power the leftists in the Democrat base so fervently wish for.

October 9, 2011       Permalink

LET'S SEE IF "HUMAN RIGHTS" GROUPS SHOW THE SLIGHTEST INTEREST – AT 10:23 A.M. ET:

CAIRO (AP) - On her first day to school, 15-year-old Christian student Ferial Habib was stopped at the doorstep of her new high school with clear instructions: either put on a headscarf or no school this year.

Habib refused. While most Muslim women in Egypt wear the headscarf, Christians do not, and the move by administrators to force a Christian student to don it was unprecedented. For the next two weeks, Habib reported to school in the southern Egyptian village of Sheik Fadl every day in her uniform, without the head covering, only to be turned back by teachers.

One day, Habib heard the school loudspeakers echoing her name and teachers with megaphones leading a number of students in chants of "We don't want Ferial here," the teenager told The Associated Press.

Habib's was allowed last week to attend without the scarf, and civil rights advocates say her case is a rare one. But it stokes the fears of Egypt's significant Christian minority that they will become the victims as Islamists grow more assertive after the Feb. 11 toppling of President Hosni Mubarak. It also illustrates how amid the country's political turmoil, with little sense of who is in charge and government control weakened, Islamic conservatives in low-level posts can step in and try to unilaterally enforce their own decisions.

Wagdi Halfa, one of Habib's lawyers, said the root problem is a lack of the rule of law.

"We don't want more laws but we want to activate the laws already in place," he said. "We are in a dark tunnel in terms of sectarian tension. Even if you have the majority who are moderate Muslims, a minority of extremists can make big impact on them and poison their minds."

COMMENT:  Gee, where have we heard this before?   We hustled Mubarak, an American ally, out of power, without any regard to who would replace him.

And in Syria, despite the cruelty of the Assad regime, Christians are expressing fear that his ouster would bring down the wrath of militant Islam on them.

The plight of Christians under militant Islam is rarely covered by the trendy press.  Maybe now, in the face of increasing abuses, that will change. 

October 9, 2011      Permalink

GOOD FOR JERRY – AT 10:11 A.M. ET:  Governor Jerry Brown of California has done the right thing in vetoing a bill that could have let the leftists in college administrations run wild.  It took guts for a liberal Democrat to do this, so praise is due. 

(Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday vetoed legislation that would have allowed California universities to consider race and gender in student admissions, even though Brown said he agreed with its goal.

The measure was the latest attempt to scale back, or repeal, so-called Proposition 209 approved by voters in 1996. It bars public agencies from considering race or ethnicity in everything from awarding contracts to accepting undergraduates.

"I wholeheartedly agree with the goal of this legislation," Brown wrote in his veto message.

But the Democratic governor said the courts should determine what should happen to Proposition 209.

For more than 15 years, Proposition 209 has prompted fierce debate. Opponents said it narrowed opportunities for women and minorities to succeed in California. Supporters countered that it simply created a system where individual ability was rewarded.

The California Supreme Court last August ruled that it was constitutional.

COMMENT:  There are thoughtful ways for universities to serve historically underserved communities – through outreach programs, recruitment of talented kids and intermediate training for kids who have been trapped in inferior schools.  But as soon as you give legal approval to take race and gender into consideration, you open the door to major abuses by ideological militants in school administrations.  Remember, the sixties crowd is in charge of many colleges and universities today.

Also, including gender is simply redundant at a time when women substantially outnumber men on many college campuses.  (And more power to those women who've pursued, through their own talent, higher education.)

Also, when you specifically permit considerations of race and ethnicity, you take the pressure off specific communities to improve themselves and their school systems.

We in New York watched, in the turbulent and corrupt 1960s, how the great City College of New York, once known as the poor person's Harvard, was wrecked before our eyes by a crazed liberal idea called "open admissions," which rapidly expanded the number of minorities admitted.  The problem is, many of those kids lacked the basic skills for college, forcing "City" into a long decline.  Open admissions was repealed by courageous New York educators and leaders some years later.  City College has risen again, and minorities are still heavily represented.  But this time the kids are better prepared because they're not admitted if they're not.   And no one is demanding "open admissions" again.

October 9, 2011     Permalink

OCTOBER 8,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:24 P.M. ET:

THE REAL ENEMY – The National Air and Space Museum in Washington had to be shut down after a confrontation between museum guards and protesters associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement.  I'm surprised the museum wasn't better prepared for the conflict since everyone knows that the real culprits in America are the Wright Brothers, who are alive and well and living in the museum's basement. 

CAIN ATTACKS AGAIN – Well, no one can call him a softie.  Herman Cain, rising in Republican polls, has Rick Perry in his political sights, apparently believing that Perry is his main rival.  He is attacking Perry relentlessly, and is expected to do so in the next GOP debate Tuesday night.  Analysts point out that former supporters who fall away from Perry are going to Cain, and that Cain is aware of that.  You go, as they say, where the ducks are.  But the Perry camp is aware, too, of the erosion.  So look for Perry to attack Cain on Tuesday.

LOBSTER WITH POLI SCI, A DELICIOUS COMBINATION – The Washington Post reports that the newest hot item on college campuses is...fine dining.  Provided by the college.  A far cry from the cafeteria food we used to gobble between classes, food now served on campus has become an attraction, and a sales point for applicants.  “I just had the honey-glazed ahi tuna and it was great," exclaimed one student at the University of Maryland.  Actually, this might be a good thing.  If we can get students to concentrate on the chow, maybe they'll forget what they're learning from the left-wing historians.

UN FRUSTRATES US DIPLOMATS – American diplomats are expressing increasing frustration with budget games at the UN.  The UN claims to be making financial cutbacks, but isn't.  American officials are also indignant over a pay raise given to UN staffers at a time of austerity, even as the US government has in place a pay freeze.  The US diplomats are aware of growing anger at the UN in Congress, and Congress must appropriate our share of the UN budget.  A number of members have threatened to withhold funds if the UN doesn't shape up, which it apparently has no intention of doing.

October 8, 2011     Permalink

BIG EASY MAKES SCHOOLS TOUGH – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  Is there anything good about hurricanes?  Apparently there is.  It seems that Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans, had one positive side effect – for some reason it reduced opposition to school reform in a city notorious for mediocre schools and overall corruption.  From The Wall Street Journal:

At John McDonough High School in this city's Esplanade Ridge district, the new superintendent points to a broken window boarded up with plastic. Nobody thought to fix it properly. "Why? Because these are the poor kids," says John White, who arrived in New Orleans this spring. "The message is: 'We don't care.'"

And...

You have these kids doing sixth-, seventh-grade math in a normal and typical school system [and here] in a 12th-grade year. And not doing it well. Well, we're going to change that."

More than any other superintendent in America, Mr. White can make good on this promise. He heads the Recovery School District, which includes most schools in New Orleans and surrounding areas, and has broad powers over them. Hurricane Katrina wiped out resistance from politicians and unions and improbably made the Big Easy a national laboratory of educational reform.

Four out of five kids in New Orleans attend independent public charters. The schools under Mr. White's supervision are open to all students no matter where they live. "In other cities, charter schools exist in spite of the system," Mr. White says. "Here charter schools are the system."

The results are encouraging. Five years ago, 23% of children scored at or above "basic" on state tests; now 48% do. Before Katrina, 62% attended failing schools; less than a fifth do today. The gap between city kids and the rest of the state is narrowing.

But New Orleans schools still have a ways to go. A state report this week based on scores, graduation rates and attendance records said the majority of the city's schools merited a D grade or worse.

And...

Over the longer run, the challenge is to make the changes stick. No urban, minority school district has shown that in the face of political opposition a freer market for schools can endure.

White comes from New York City, where he was instrumental in improving a once-great school system that had fallen on hard times.

New York taught him "mainly that the school is the unit that matters," Mr. White says, "and that great schools often exist in spite of unsupportive, often intrusive, school district offices." Traditional government agencies find it hard to muster "the intensive strategic focus" needed to fix bad schools, he adds.

For generations, money was thrown at urban school systems; regulations were strengthened; school boards were empowered. Unions won tenure and other great benefits for their teachers. All of these efforts came from the top down. None improved outcomes for minority students. "We have tended as a country to solve problems like this more through generating energy by way of our entrepreneurs," says Mr. White. "The approach [in New Orleans] is just government facilitating an entrepreneurial solution to this inequity."

Actually, reforms began before White and before Katrina.  But Katrina was instrumental in clearing the field:

...in 2005, Katrina closed the schools for the fall term. All teachers were let go, and as kids have returned about one in five has gone back to their jobs.

Suddenly it was a different place. Schools started from scratch under new management with broad authority to hire and fire their staff. Teachers lost collective-bargaining rights. Strange bedfellows—older African-American principals, civic activists, business people—came together to rebuild the schools. Charter boards filled up with local notables. "Success in education reform created confidence that other reforms could be done," says Greg Rusovich, a prominent businessman and Republican donor. He mentions the overhaul of the New Orleans police, the levee board and city procurement.

COMMENT:  Great story.  But there may be clouds ahead.  Mr. White is...white, as is the mayor.  The racialists are out there peddling resentment rather than reform.  So far, parents are supporting White.  He believes his aces in the hole are black mothers who want their kids to go to good schools.  Whether that will be enough to overcome objections from the poverty industry is yet to be seen.  But we can cheer John White from the sidelines.

October 8, 2011       Permalink 

BUILD THE PIPELINE! – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  We haven't covered this before, but the Obamans will soon make a final decision on whether to permit a major oil pipeline to be built from Canada deep into the U.S.  Naturally, the usual suspects are out in force, with two elements of the Obaman base on opposite sides – labor unions that want jobs, and environmentalists who want the 17th century. 

Greens held a rally in D.C. Friday to protest a proposed U.S.-Canada oil pipeline. Earlier that day, unions rallied half a block away in favor of the Keystone XL project, which would create 20,000 jobs.

As liberal protesters watched forlornly from across the street, a loud, rowdy crowd of about 300 in downtown Washington, D.C., demonstrated in favor of a major oil industry pipeline project...

...Was this the Tea Party counter-protesting against the Occupy Wall Street crowd? Nope. The rally was held by the Laborers International Union of North America. The union was there to back TransCanada’s (TRP) Keystone XL pipeline, a $7 billion project that would bring oil from Alberta to Texas...

...The liberal protesters — in town to mark the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan war — were mostly silent, but one shirtless dreadlocked fellow crashed the union rally. “These (oil business) people will poison you and steal your money!” he shouted.

He was quickly surrounded by union members who shouted “Jobs! Jobs!” drowning him out.

“These people — with the best of intentions — are being misled,” the anti-pipeline protestor, who identified himself as Carlos Reyes, later told Capitol Hill.

Just two hours later, about the same number of green protesters organized just half a block away to oppose the pipeline project. This time it was LIUNA members’ turn to watch and hold their tongues.

COMMENT:  We go with the unions, and the American interest, on this one.  The greens simply can't accept that true "green energy" is a long way off, and many of the sources and devices under development will no doubt fail in some major respect.  We will be an oil-based economy for decades to come.  The pipeline gives us a reliable supply of petroleum from an ally and neighbor, and it will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, as will further development in the United States.

The greenies scream that there are environmental hazards, namely from possible spills.  There are, and yes sabotage is an issue.  But there are hazards in aviation, car travel, and crossing busy corners.  Hazards with pipelines can be controlled quickly by cutting off the flow.  The Alaska pipeline has worked.  It is in our national interest, and our commercial interest, to build the line.  We weigh the benefits against the risks, and the benefits win.

Let's see if the Obamans get this one right.  I'm guessing that they will.  Jobs trump everything these days.

October 8, 2011       Permalink

PRESIDENT ROMNEY? – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:  Mitt Romney continues his strategy of projecting full confidence that he'll be the nominee, and the next president, and delivered a fine foreign policy speech at the Citadel yesterday: 

"I believe we are an exceptional country with a unique destiny and role in the world," Romney said, with an audience of cadets sitting behind him. "Not exceptional, as the president has derisively said, in the way that the British think Great Britain is exceptional or the Greeks think Greece is exceptional. In Barack Obama’s profoundly mistaken view, there is nothing unique about the United States."

Romney criticized the president on cutting the defense budget, as well. "I will reverse President Obama’s massive defense cuts," he said. "I will begin reversing Obama-era cuts to national missile defense and prioritize the full deployment of a multilayered national ballistic missile defense system."

In his closing argument, Romney contrasted his vision of America's role in the world with that of Obama. "I will not surrender America’s role in the world," he said. "This is very simple. If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your president. You have that president today." The cadets applauded.

COMMENT:  Good stuff.  And Romney looked and sounded good...like a president, not a candidate.  I don't think his nomination is inevitable, but, as one who's been lukewarm about him, I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with his candidacy. 

Rick Perry continues to falter, not quite knowing how to bounce back from his early blunders and assert himself as the successful governor he's been.  Herman Cain, who's been the focus of much attention because of his rise in the polls, continues to be, well, Herman Cain.  Terrific spirit, but mixed with a lot of statements that sound like they come from the hip.  He's simply got to think before he speaks.  It's unlikely that Cain will be the nominee, but he's said he could be vice presidential nominee for anyone but Rick Perry, whom he plainly doesn't like.  Trouble is, you have to be selected as v.p. nominee, and the guy at the top will be reluctant to select anyone who can't control his mouth.  Loose cannons tend to be fired in the wrong direction.  Discipline, Herman, discipline.

October 8, 2011      Permalink