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OCTOBER 21,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:10 P.M. ET:

DIDN'T ANYONE NOTICE? – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has canceled a scheduled speech at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School because of threats from the Occupy movement and its allies that he would be harassed and interrupted.  These movements claim to represent "99%" of the people, yet the House Majority Leader, who actually does represent people – the kind who vote by secret ballot – cannot freely speak at an American university.  So much for democracy.  We await expressions of outrage by the Penn faculty.  I suspect we'll be waiting a long time.

CRACKPOTS – We reported earlier on Justice Department plans to revamp the training of FBI agents and others to excise material "offensive" to militant Muslim groups.  Now we learn that these groups had a cheerleading session with Tom Perez, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division.  Perez, a hard leftist, listened to serious requests that criticism of Islam be declared illegal in the United States and a violation of the Constitution.  While Perez made no promises, his record should make us concerned that he will try to satisfy these individuals if he can.  When Obama took office, we were cautioned by some wise observers not to look that much at Cabinet-level appointments, bur rather at middle-level appointments, like Perez.  These are the people who actually make policy, and Obama has many middle-level appointees on the way-out left.

THE BAN GROWS – Fox News is reporting that the banning of Halloween from schools is growing throughout the United States.  Excuses for the ban reflect the usual left-wing thinking that many teachers and principals were subjected to at universities and teachers' colleges.  Halloween "excludes" new citizens upon whom we are "imposing" our traditions.  Halloween is "unfair" to kids who don't have costumes.  (Ever think of having local parents volunteer to donate costumes?)  We on our side simply fail to realize the enormity of the damage our educational institutions have done in the past generation, populated as they are by the intellectual leftovers from the 1960s.  What our kids learn in school will affect national policy 20 years down the line.  It's a chilling thought.

REMEMBER HIM? – Bill Ayers, the radical "educator" from Chicago, former Weatherman and preacher of violence, and onetime mentor to a young politician named Barack Obama, is now denouncing Obama for, among other things, the drone attack that killed an Al Qaeda leader in Yemen, who also was an American citizen.  Having Ayers denounce him is probably the best thing that's happened to Obama in a long time.  Mr. Ayers apparently believes that Americans don't have the right to defend themselves against Al Qaeda.  Or perhaps he feels we must wait for more Americans to be murdered before taking action.

October 21, 2011       Permalink

MONEY TALKING – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:   The Dems may be down, but they're sure bringing in the cash.  Money is called the mother's milk of politics.  If so, the milk cans are piling up at Democratic National Headquarters.  From The Politico:

Despite being in the minority, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised its GOP counterpart for the third straight month, bringing in nearly double the cash of the National Republican Congressional Committee in September.

The House Democratic campaign arm raised over $6.6 million to the NRCC’s $3.8 million, according to financial filings released Thursday.

Democrats are 25 seats in the minority, but their September cash edge over the newly empowered House Republicans continues a surprising trend. Over the course of the year, the DCCC has outraised the NRCC $47 million to $44 million.

The NRCC maintains a $12.2 million to $9.5 million cash on hand lead over the DCCC.

And there some strange quirks in fundraising for specific races.  Consider:

BOSTON — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is raking in millions from out-of-state donors even as incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown is increasingly relying on local supporters.

Warren’s campaign spokesman said Thursday that nearly 70 percent of the $3.1 million that has flowed into Warren’s campaign account during the past three months has come from outside Massachusetts.

That’s compared to Brown who has raised $1.55 million in the same time period, with just 37 percent coming from out of state, according to his spokesman.

COMMENT:  The national Dems want desperately to take that seat back from Scott Brown.  That was Ted Kennedy's seat, and the Dems believe they have ownership rights.   How dare some election disrupt the natural order of things.

Elizabeth Warren will give Brown a run for his (limited) money.  It's a heavily Democratic state, and Warren is far more effective than the candidate Brown defeated for the seat, Martha Coakley.  Watch this race carefully.   It should be a Republican year next year, but Massachusetts could be a heartbreaker.

October 21, 2011       Permalink 

DISGRACEFUL, OUTRAGEOUS, UNACCEPTABLE – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  One day after we get Gaddafi, the president's own Justice Department announces a kamikaze step that will seriously compromise, if not paralyze, our efforts to root out home-grown terrorists.  You have to read this twice to believe it.  From the Daily Caller:

Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday that the Obama administration was pulling back all training materials used for the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam that some Muslim groups have claimed are offensive.

“I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school.

The move comes after complaints from advocacy organizations including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and others identified as Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the 2004 Holy Land Foundation terror fundraising trial.

In a Wednesday Los Angeles Times op-ed, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) president Salam al-Marayati threatened the FBI with a total cutoff of cooperation between American Muslims and law enforcement if the agency failed to revise its law enforcement training materials.

Maintaining the training materials in their current state “will undermine the relationship between law enforcement and the Muslim American community,” al-Marayati wrote.

Multiple online sources detail MPAC’s close alignment with CAIR.

This is utterly sickening.  The United States Government goes out of its way to stress the distinction between law-abiding Muslims and those planning attacks against the United States.  The bottom line is that the overwhelming number of terror attempts are made by radical Muslims.  Just yesterday two radical Muslims were convicted in Minneapolis of funneling money to terror groups in Somalia.  And get this:

In his op-ed, Al-Marayati demanded that the Justice Department and the FBI “issue a clear and unequivocal apology to the Muslim American community” and “establish a thorough and transparent vetting process in selecting its trainers and materials.”

Specifically, al-Marayati called for a new “interagency task force” to review the training materials — a task force including representatives of the Islamist organizations the FBI is tasked with monitoring.

Are we serious here?  That's like having members of the Ku Klux Klan serve as advisers to the agents investigating Klan activities.  That's like inviting the KGB to examine our investigation of its spying in the United States. 

This is complete madness.  Our Justice Department, under Eric Holder, seems to be in its knee-jerk left-wing mode.  The professional Muslim organizations should be grateful for how restrained this country has been in the years after 9-11.  The demand that the government apologize to the Muslim commity is outrageous. 

I cannot imagine a Republican Justice Department buckling before these threats and demands.

October 21, 2011       Permalink

KEEPING OUR EYE ON THE BALL – AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  There's hoopla over Muammar, and the economy is in the tank.  It's understandable that many Americans are taking their eye off the Iranian ball.  That is unfortunate, and dangerous, as Reuters notes:

Iran plans to soon start moving nuclear material to an underground site for the pursuit of
sensitive atomic activities, diplomatic sources say, a move likely to add to Western fears about Tehran's intentions.

Yeah, I'd say so.

They said a first batch of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) -- material which is fed into machines used to refine uranium -- would be transferred to the Fordow site near the holy city of Qom in preparation for launching enrichment work there.

Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, Iran's stated aim, or provide material for bombs if processed to a higher degree, which the West suspects is its ultimate goal.

COMMENT:  All the other problems of the region pale by comparison to the possibility of the Iranian mullahs getting an atomic bomb.  That will change the power equation dramatically and allow the Iranians to engage in even more reckless behavior, knowing they have something we rightfully fear.

Even the thought that the Iranians may give a nuke or two to a terror group, or sail one into an American harbor, will change the way we defend ourselves and use our intelligence assets.  But we just aren't paying enough attention.

October 21, 2011        Permalink

US WARNS ON LIBYA – AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  There are still celebrations over the timely passing of Muammar Gaddafi, but Washington is warning that tough days in Libya lie ahead.  From Fox:

U.S. officials and analysts cautioned Thursday that western nations must continue to keep a close eye on Libya following the death of strongman Muammar Qaddafi, with the transition to democracy still in flux, "extremist elements" on the prowl and potentially thousands of weapons on the loose.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who just two days earlier had expressed hope that Qaddafi would be captured or killed so the Libyan people would not have to "fear" him, told Fox News on Thursday that the country still has a tough road ahead.

And...

...a U.S. official told Fox News that those involved with the operation have to be "careful that what comes next" isn't worse than Qaddafi. The challenge, the official said, is ensuring "extremist elements" within the anti-Qaddafi forces don't take control and allow the country to become yet another safe haven for terrorists or a source of black-market weapons.

The U.S. has been on alert in recent weeks over unsecured weapons in the wake of Qaddafi's ouster -- particularly 20,000 shoulder-launched missiles.

Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said securing the weapons should be a "very urgent priority" right now.

"This is certainly not the end of the struggle. It's the end of Qaddafi and that's a good thing," he said.

COMMENT:  The warnings are correct.  The "Arab spring" can easily turn into an Arab winter, or a long hot summer.  Egypt, where we forced out a pro-American authoritarian leader, seems to be drifting into nowhere, with the Christian minority under attack and the military engaging in pretty standard abuses.

Libya has an Al Qaeda element, and missiles missing from the Libyan arsenal have been reported in the Gaza Strip.

It's the Mideast.  Not a real place.

October 21, 2011     Permalink

OCTOBER 20,  2011 

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:01 P.M. ET:

IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG – Obama-friendly journalists are already spinning the death of Muammar Gaddafi as a great victory for President Obama, and contrasting it with the BUSH (!!) war in Iraq, with its casualties and cost.  This, of course, is absurd.  Libya has a population of about 6.5 million, whereas Iraq has more than 31 million.  Iraq had a major military force and no internal revolt.  Libya's military force was minor and the country's revolution  was underway before we intervened.  But the Obama army won't let the details get in their way.  When have they ever?

OCCUPY OAKLAND – Crimes, mostly thefts, have been reported at a number of the "occupy" sites springing up around the country, but nothing compares to reports out of Oakland, California, where the occupy site has degenerated into rat infestation, sexual harassment, public sex, drug dealing, child endangerment, and violent threats against reporters.  The occupiers have now apparently banned the media from the occupy sites.  The sad fact is that there are legitimate complaints against some corprations and Wall Street operations, but they are being drowned out by the degenerating behavior of many of the protesters.

A REMINDER – Two Minnesota women, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, have been convicted in Minneapolis of funneling money to a terrorist group in Somalia.  Both women are U.S. citizens of Somali descent. The two are among 20 Somali-Americans charged with aiding al-Shabab, a Somalian group with ties to Al Qaeda. In recent years a number of Somali men have suddenly disappeared from Minnesota, and it is feared that they have gone to Somalia to join terror groups. 

CAIN LEADS IN IOWA – A new Rasmussen poll shows that Herman Cain has jumped into the lead among Republicans in Iowa.  Iowa is crucial because it holds one of the first primaries.  In Iowa's case, the caucus system is used.  Cain gets 28% of the vote, Romney 21%, Ron Paul 10%, Gingrich 9%, Bachmann 8%, and Rick Perry 7%.  Perry's showing is especially weak because he was the frontrunner in Iowa in early September.  The survey was taken yesterday, a day after the GOP debate in Las Vegas.

October 20, 2011       Permalink

NEW JOBLESS REPORT – AT 9:35 A.M. ET:  Despite a desperate attempt to put a good face on it,  the weekly report of unemployment claims does not contain much encouraging news.  From Bloomberg:

The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits declined last week to a level that shows little improvement in the labor market since the start of the year.

Jobless claims dropped by 6,000 to 403,000 in the week ended Oct. 15, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 400,000 applications. The four-week average fell to the lowest level since April.

Some companies are still paring their workforces at the same time demand has fallen short of the level that may spur businesses to expand staff. The lack of employment growth, which is limiting consumer spending and restraining the recovery, underscores the challenge for President Barack Obama, who is trying to push Congress to pass parts of his jobs initiative.

“We’re running in place,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, who projected 405,000 claims. The data are “consistent with lackluster to moderate growth in the job market and the economy,” he said.

And there's this, from Business Insider:

While the number of unemployed workers has held steady at around 14 million in recent months, another telling measure of frustration in the labor market—the number of underemployed individuals—rose for a third consecutive month in September, by almost a half of a million people.

Almost 9.3 million Americans are considered underemployed, defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as working part-time for economic reasons, such as unfavorable business conditions or seasonal declines in demand.

That's up from just over 8 million in July, but down from a peak of about 9.5 million in September 2010. In addition, about 2.5 million individuals are considered "marginally attached to the labor force," meaning they were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. (They are not counted as unemployed because they had not looked for a job in the past four weeks prior to the survey.)

COMMENT:  We're now a year out from the 2012 election.  While things can improve, they don't appear to be improving.  If the economy continues at its current level, Republicans will have an advantage, unless they throw it away, which they are skilled at doing. 

More important, Americans are hurting, and there seems to be a growing expectation that this pain will last for years, that we're heading for permanent economic weakness.  I guess hope and change just didn't work out.

October 20, 2011       Permalink 

BULLETIN – GADDAFI REPORTED DEAD – AT 8:54 A.M. ET:   We do not have absolute confirmation of this, but here is the report, from Fox:

SIRTE, Libya – Conflicting reports emerged on Thursday that Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi has been captured or killed.

"Qaddafi is dead. He is absolutely dead ... he was shot in both legs and in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata soon," media spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News.

Libyan TV channel Libya lil Ahrar, meanwhile, said the ousted dictator was in custody.

The Transitional National Council's UK spokesman, Mahmoud Nacua, warned that there was "not enough information" to confirm Qaddafi's capture, and a former TNC spokesman in Britain, Guma al Gamati told Sky News that "this is not confirmed."

Sirte -- Qaddafi's hometown and the last bastion of his supporters -- was the last holdout against TNC forces. The town's capture, which both military officials and new regime political sources said was expected later Thursday, would pave the way for the TNC to officially take control of Libya and move its headquarters away from its Benghazi stronghold in the east to the capital, Tripoli.

COMMENT:  We'll wait and see.  Gaddafi's death (his name is spelled in different ways) would probably be a blessing, putting an end to the story, without turning the dictator into a martyr.

October 20, 2011       Permalink

THE REBIRTH OF RICK PERRY? – AT 8:22 A.M. ET:  That seems to be the way the Perry people are billing this week.  Perry reborn in debate.  Perry presenting his economic plans.  Perry the fighter.

Could it be true?  We'll have to wait for some solid polling, but Perry is at least fighting back from his rapid decline. 

LAS VEGAS — Texas Gov. Rick Perry followed up a feisty debate performance with a pledge Wednesday to fight for a flat tax and with another round of thinly disguised jabs at rival Mitt Romney — the man he sees as his chief obstacle to winning the GOP presidential nod next year.

Showing a bounce in his step, the three-term Texas governor jogged onto the stage at the Western Republican Leadership Conference and delivered a 15-minute speech vowing to roll out an economic plan next week that would scrap the current tax code and replace it with a flat tax.

And...

Mr. Perry also picked up where he left off in the testy debate the previous night, implicitly questioning Mr. Romney’s conservative credentials, as he worked to revive some of the ideological concerns that helped derail the former Massachusetts governor’s 2008 bid.

“A ‘change election’ requires a new direction and not more of the same — and I come by my conservatism very authentically, not by convenience,” Mr. Perry said, assuring the gathering of Western conservatives that he is not the establishment’s pick nor a flip-flopper on the issues that are important to them.

In a sign of the growing heat between the two contenders, the Romney camp struck back, releasing a one-minute “Ready To Lead?” Web video highlighting some of Mr. Perry’s worst moments in recent debates, where he stumbled over his words, meandered through a response to a question about the nation’s policy toward China and refused to offer details of his economic plan.

The man squeezed out here is Herman Cain, who went into Tuesday night's debate on a wave of rising popularity, but came out somewhat battered.  People still like him, and that's justified.  But his 9-9-9 tax reform plan is not holding up well to scrutiny.  And Cain has not helped himself with vague or snippy answers to questions about it.  He may become the Ross Perot of this campaign – lots of energy, few answers, although we have to admire the guy.

As for Perry, his bitter fight with Romney reminds us of Reagan's 11th Commandment:  "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican."  Speaking ill has now become, in this campaign, the thing to do.

Is Perry capable of making a comeback?  Theoretically, yes.  But it must consist of much more than an attack on Mitt Romney.  The flat tax is an interesting idea, but hardly original.  No one is buzzing about it.  Perry will start rolling out other plans soon.

There won't be another Republican debate for a month, so Perry will have to depend on advertising and press reports.  The campaign can get vicious.   Primary voting is only a few months away.  I still think that Romney must be considered the frontrunner, but he's not inevitable. 

October 20, 2011       Permalink

AND SPEAKING OF THE MIDEAST – AT 8:02 A.M. ET:   The apparent capture of Muammar Gaddafi does nothing to minimize the threat from Iran.  And, indeed, coming on the news that Iran plotted to murder the Saudi ambassador to Washington on U.S. soil, with a possible substantial loss of American life, the U.S. is now concerned about further plots. 

(Reuters) - The United States believes Iran's shadowy Quds Force is becoming increasingly aggressive overseas and may be working on other international plots beyond the alleged plan to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, three U.S. officials told Reuters.

U.S. allegations last week of a foiled plot in Washington have escalated tensions between the United States and Iran. They have also renewed Washington's focus on the Quds Force, the covert operations arm of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is believed to have sponsored attacks on U.S. targets in the Middle East -- but never before in the United States.

"They're being more aggressive ... not only in Iraq but worldwide," one senior U.S. official said in an interview. The official and others insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record and because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

U.S. officials have long charged that the Quds Force -- the Arabic word for Jerusalem -- has used proxies to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The Quds Force, whose power within Iran is believed to be growing, is also active in Lebanon, the Gulf, Syria and elsewhere, officials said.

COMMENT:  Imagine what the Quds Force will be when Iran acquires nuclear weapons.  Of course, there are the usual suspects who play down the threat from Iran, just as there were "experts" before World War II, and fellow travelers, who played down the threats from both Germany and Japan.  But Iran's record is pretty clear.  It is currently killing Americans in Iraq, and we can only hope the administration doesn't melt away from vigilance.  At the same time, we note that nothing we've done so far has deterred Iran, and there are plenty of countries, especially in Europe, who see Iran as a trading partner, and tend to play down our concerns.

After all, what can little Holocaust deniers with crazy ideas do?

October 20, 2011        Permalink

BULLETIN – GADDAFI CAPTURED – AT 7:47 A.M. ET:  This has not been confirmed, but is being reported by several news agencies:

(Reuters) - Deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured and wounded near his hometown of Sirte at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked, National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid said on Thursday.

The senior NTC military official told Reuters by telephone that the head of Gaddafi's armed forces Abu Bakr Younus Jabr had been killed during the capture of the Libyan ex-leader.

COMMENT:  Sounds like a replay of the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.  We wonder if all those worthies who criticized President Bush's actions in Iraq will now do a 180 and praise President Obama for doing pretty much the same thing in Libya, although, admittedly, with less of a U.S. force.  (Of course, Libya is a much less populous country.)

Is this good news?  Well, sure.  Gaddafi is a bad piece of work.  But the key question is:  What now?  Who succeeds him?  What alliances will the new government make?  Hillary Clinton was just in Libya shaking hands with the winners, but handshaking in the Arab world hasn't gotten us too far. 

Fasten your seatbelts.  It's going to be a bumpy year.  (What film am I almost quoting?)

October 20, 2011     Permalink