Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum

OCTOBER 23,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:41 P.M. ET:

REAL CLASS – The deterioration of The New York Times continues, marked in part by a failure of self-control.  Responsible newspapers write responsibly.  In an editorial on prisoner policy today, The Times's notoriously leftist editorial board referred to "the usual gang of fearmongers, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman..."
What a disgrace.  Agree with them or not, those are three of the most knowledgeable authorities on national security in the U.S. Senate.  They are not a gang, nor are they fearmongers.  The Times is engaged in a modern-day McCarthyism.  In addition, The Times today continues its tradition of running a hit piece on any Republican who rises in popularity.  The paper is running a piece "exposing" Herman Cain's past.  It seems, shock, he spent some time in lobbying.  Should we call the cops?  The meter maids?  The Times devotes special attention to blacks, women or Hispanics who stray.

SETBACK – The interim leader of Libya has announced that the post-Gaddafi country would be run in accordance with Sharia law.  Already a law has been lifted banning polygamy.  So men, get a bunch of engagement rings.  I recommend six.  This move toward fundamentalist Sharia is a setback for Libya's young idealists, who clearly had a secular, democratic state involved.  It is also a setback for the West, which could easily wind up with a state more dangerous and hostile than the one run by Gaddafi  This occurs as we await the results from Tunisia's elections today, where Islamists are also expected to do well in a country generally considered secular.  We've got to watch the Arab spring with two eyes.

LOOK AT THE ROLE MODELS– A new, discouraging report says that the number of African-Americans entering science and engineering is dropping, not growing as one would expect from all the affirmative action programs available.  Although blacks make up 12% of the population, they receive only 7% of the science bachelor's degrees, 4% of master's degrees, and 2% of Ph.D.'s.  The report gives a number of theories as to why the statistics are so gloomy, but I would say, from what I've observed, that culture – what gets rewarded in a community, who gets looked up to – is at the heart of it.  A disproportionate number of science degrees goes to Asian-Americans, who come from social groups that revere learning, especially in the sciences.  The parent, remember, is the first teacher.

October 23, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 12:10 P.M. ET: 

From the Financial Times:  The Queen is coming perilously close to joining millions of her subjects in “fuel poverty” as energy bills for four palaces and a draughty castle absorb a rising share of her income...The Queen herself prowls the corridors, switching off superfluous lights, a Buckingham Palace employee said.

I'm sure Barack Obama will send Her Majesty a case of those new energy-efficient bulbs we're now required to buy.  Or at least candles. 

RIGHT OUT OF THE SIXTIES – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  One of the most prominent memories of the sixties was the violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. 

So, when I see demonstrators confronting cops in Chicago, I recall those days.  Ah yes, I remember it well.

The "occupy" movement has hit Chicago, and the inevitable arrests have begun.  The movement, in many cities, is becoming increasingly unruly and in some cases violent.  We should watch carefully what is happening because we may well see a repeat at next year's political conventions.  From Fox: 

CHICAGO – Anti-Wall Street demonstrators of the Occupy Chicago movement stood their ground in a downtown park in noisy but peaceful defiance of police orders to clear out, prompting at least 100 arrests early Sunday, authorities said.

Occupy Chicago spokesman Joshua Kaunert vowed after the arrests that protests would continue in the Midwest city.

"We're not going anywhere. There are still plenty of us," Kaunert told The Associated Press after the arrests, which took police more than an hour to complete.

Elsewhere in the nation, police reported 11 arrests overnight in the Occupy Cincinnati protests. Police said those arrested had stayed in that city's Fountain Square after Sunday's 3 a.m. closing time and each was charged with criminal trespass.

In Chicago, police began taking people into custody just before 1 a.m. Sunday. Those arrested were led in groups to vans and two large white buses as others clamored to be arrested.

COMMENT:  What is sad is that there are plenty of things to criticize about the operation of the economic system.  There is plenty of corruption to go around.  But, as usual, the left finds it necessary to descend to the lowest level of adolescent grossness.  Instead of getting intelligent arguments we get crude behavior and irrational screaming.  Then they wonder why they don't get anywhere.

In fact, a startling high number of Americans – some 37% in a new poll – support the basic complaints of the occupy movement.  That number will erode, though, as the movement destroys itself and makes a mockery of its own beliefs.

But wait 'til next year.  The conventions may be a lot more interesting than usual.

October 23, 2011       Permalink

A LITTLE UNFASHIONABLE TRUTH FOR A CHANGE – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  One of the more distorted stories of our time is South Africa.  The standard media narrative is that South Africa was all about apartheid, which it bravely threw off.  Once that happened, the country was given a kind of statehood.  No questions asked, no doubts allowed.

In fact, South Africa is a disgrace.  It is a crime-ridden society where rape is the crime of choice.  Although ostensibly a democracy, it doesn't lift a finger to advance democracy in Africa.  It was an ally of Muammar Gaddafi.  Now South Africa once again shows its true colors...or its one true color – red.  From Reuters:

Given that China is South Africa’s biggest trading partner and given the close relationship between Beijing and the ruling African National Congress, it didn’t come as a huge surprise that South Africa was in no hurry to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama.

Tibet’s spiritual leader will end up missing the 80th birthday party of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a fellow Nobel peace prize winner. He said his application for a visa had not come through on time despite having been made to Pretoria several weeks earlier. (Although South Africa’s government said a visa hadn’t actually been denied, the Dalai Lama’s office said it appeared to find the prospect inconvenient).

Desmond Tutu said the government’s action was a national disgrace and warned the President and ruling party that one day he will start praying for the defeat of the ANC government.

Tutu himself is no prize.  He hasn't done a thing of value in almost 30 years.

It’s the second time the Dalai Lama has been unable to honour an invitation to South Africa by Tutu after failing to make it to a meeting in 2010.

South Africa will certainly win more plaudits in Beijing, which last week agreed to $2.5 billion in investment projects with during a visit by South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.

But pro-Tibet activists say South Africa is undermining its credentials as a country of freedom and democracy, established after the end of white minority rule a generation ago.

COMMENT:  What credentials?  Freedom House, a center in New York for the study of democracy, has ranked the democracies of the world in terms of their devotion to human rights in their foreign policies.  South Africa was at the bottom.

We get very little real reporting on what South Africa has become.  Criticism of the country doesn't fit the approved narrative of fashionable journalism.  I doubt if it will change until South Africa descends into violence, which is bound to happen.

October 23, 2011       Permalink

THE ARAB SPRING HAS SPRUNG – AT 10:39 A.M. ET:  The first free election since the Arab revolts is being held today in Tunisia, where the Arab spring began.  Tunisia is a pretty moderate country, but there are still fears that the Islamists will hijack the revolution. 

TUNIS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Tunisian voters poured into polling stations to vote on Sunday in their country's first free election, 10 months after a vegetable seller set fire to himself in an act of protest that started the Arab Spring uprisings.

The leader of an Islamist party predicted to win the biggest share of the vote was heckled outside a polling station by people shouting "terrorist" -- highlighting tensions between Islamists and secularists that are also being felt in other countries touched by the Arab Spring.

Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, prompted by his despair at poverty and government repression, provoked mass protests which forced President Zine al-Abidine to flee Tunisia. This in turn inspired revolts in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria.

Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the moderately Islamist Ennahda party, took his place in the queue outside a polling station in the El Menzah 6 district of the capital.

"This is an historic day," he said, accompanied by his wife and daughter, who were both wearing hijabs, or Islamic headscarves. "Tunisia was born today. The Arab Spring was born today."

But as he emerged from the polling station, about a dozen people shouted at him: "Degage" French for "Go away," and "You are a terrorist and an assassin! Go back to London!"

Ghannouchi, who spent 22 years in exile in Britain, has associated his party with the moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. He has said he will not try to impose Muslim values on society.

But the party's rise is worrying Tunisia's secularists who believe their country's liberal, modernist traditions are now under threat.

COMMENT:  I love the reporter's term "moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan."  Does the reporter read the papers?  Erdogan has emerged as an ally of Iran and an Islamic militant.  The people of Tunisia have reason to be worried if this other "moderate" Islamist gains power.

If the Islamists get a serious foothold in Tunisia, it won't be a good omen for other Arab countries like Egypt or Libya, where Islamist forces are even stronger.

October 23, 2011     Permalink

OCTOBER 22,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:03 P.M. ET:

VACANT WARNING – Hillary Clinton is warning Iran not to interfere in Iraq once all American troops are out of Iraq by the end of the year.  The warning is vacant.  What precisely would America do?  We won't have any troops in the area, we've let Iran continue with its nuclear program, we don't help the Iranian democratic opposition in any way, and all we do is apply sanctions that have been ineffective.  In addition, the Iraqi regime is sympathetic toward Iran and completely ungrateful toward the United States.  I'm sure the mullahs of Tehran are studying Clinton's warning carefully.  Not.

MORE GRATITUDE – Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose regime is propped up by American blood and treasure, says that if the U.S. and Pakistan are ever involved in a military conflict, Afghanistan would side with Pakistan.  Hey, thanks Hamid.  That'll go down well with the parents of the American soldiers who save your bacon every day.  What is it with these Muslim leaders?  They have no sense of gratitude at all.  They think we owe them a favor.   We have made friends of former enemies like Japan and Germany, yet Muslim countries we assist, with some important exceptions, treat us like the help.

BACHMANN FADING – Several key members of Michele Bachmann's New Hampshire staff have resigned, another sad sign that Bachmann's campaign is fading.  She reached a high point when she won the Iowa straw poll, but has been struggling ever since Rick Perry entered the race and sucked away much of Bachmann's support.  Bachmann gets one more chance in Iowa when the state holds its caucuses.  If she fails to perform in Iowa again, I'm afraid it's over for her.

JINDAL WINS AGAIN – Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has just been re-elected.  It wasn't too long ago that Jindal was considered a rising Republican star, with a good shot at the presidency.  His star seems to have dimmed somewhat, in part because of a disastrous performance giving the Republican reply to a presidential speech.  He just isn't mentioned much these days.  Maybe his re-election would bring some attention back to him.  I still think he's a dynamic, terrific and original guy.

October 22, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:

From London's Telegraph:  The no-holds barred biography of Steve Jobs has revealed that former president Bill Clinton consulted the Apple boss on what to do about his affair with Monica Lewinsky during a late night tete-a-tete.   Jobs reportedly replied: 'I don't know if you did it, but if so, you've got to tell the country.'  According to his biographer Walter Isaacson, after Jobs delivered his advice: 'There was silence on the other end of the line.'

Maybe Clinton thought Jobs would just advise him to hit the "delete" key and erase any pictures of Monica in iPhoto.

THE END IN IRAQ – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  The President announced yesterday that all American troops will be out of Iraq by year's end, essentially terminating the American role in the Iraq war.

Virtually every military expert cautioned that we must have a contingent in Iraq to maintain the country's stability and safeguard the gains we made.  But the Iraq government, reflecting the general lack of gratitude that we get in that region, refused to grant any remaining force legal immunity, meaning an American soldier under charge could be tried in an Iraqi court, rather than by an American court martial.  That is unacceptable to the United States, and so a deal for a continuing American presence collapsed. 

The question is whether all the sacrifice will now go down the drain.  Without American protection, Iraq can easily slip within the Iranian orbit.  The country can itself descend once more into chaos, with the different tribes fighting each other.  It's been pointed out that the Iraq regime has acted badly toward the United States, without whose blood and treasure that very regime would not exist.  American contractors have not received a single oil contract in Iraq.  The contracts have gone to countries like Russia and China. 

Will the Iraq mission eventually fail?  It seems more likely without the protective presence of American troops.  And if it does, it will be very hard to justify any further intervention in the region.  The American people will not accept it, and the Islamists will have won a major victory.

October 22, 2011       Permalink

JUSTICE GOES FISHING – AT 10:42 A.M. ET:  We have been reporting on the sorry performance of Eric Holder's Department of Justice, which provides justice, on a silver platter, to members of approved groups.

The great Dorothy Rabinowitz, of The Wall Street Journal, one of the country's best investigative reporters, reports on Justice's latest triumph – turning an Illinois Muslim teacher's absurd and immature demand into a civil right:

...even Americans accustomed to the relentless -- more precisely the relentlessly selective -- political correctness of the Obama Justice Department had to have been startled at the facts of this case and the deranged notions of equity that had impelled Eric Holder's DOJ to go rushing into battle against the school district.

The school teacher in question, Safoorah Khan, a middle school math lab instructor, had worked at the school for barely a year when she applied for some 19 days unpaid leave so that she could make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The school district denied the request: She was the only math lab instructor the school had, her absence would come just at the period before exams, and furthermore, the leave she wanted was outside the bounds set for all teachers under their union contract.

Charging religious discrimination, Ms. Khan resigned and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Justice Department took it from there, filing a lawsuit in December 2010, claiming the teacher's civil rights had been violated. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez noted at the time that a great wave of intolerance was being visited on Muslims in America, and this was one of the reasons for taking the case.

In Mr. Perez's view and that of the DOJ apparently, the school district's refusal of 19 days leave for Ms. Khan at a time when her presence was vitally needed -- a leave available to no other teacher under the union contract -- sufficed as proof that the district was guilty of bias against Muslims, and of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Last week the terms of the settlement were announced. The Berkeley School District was to pay the teacher $75, 000 for her trouble -- back pay and lawyers fees. The District is now also required to establish mandatory training in religious accommodation for all personnel.

COMMENT:  The pilgrimage to Mecca is required of a Muslim only once in a lifetime.  This young teacher had years ahead to make the journey.  The settlement, which will deprive the struggling district of $75,000 that cannot go for books, must still be approved by a federal court, so there is hope that it can still be overturned.  Still, the chilling effect on other districts cannot be denied.  School districts throughout the country will now be inclined to grant absurd requests, even if they hurt children, but only if these requests come from members of anointed groups.

The instigator, Tom Perez, runs the civil rights division.  He is known as a hard leftist, even a radical, and many commentators warned about him when he was first appointed.  He has justified the warnings. 

Just yesterday we learned that Justice is rewriting manuals for the war on terror, deleting materials that radical Muslim groups find offensive. 

President Obama has gotten high marks for tracking down terrorists, or at least ordering others to do so.  Mr. Perez did not get the memo.  Neither, apparently, did his inept and ideological boss, Eric Holder.

October 22, 2011        Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  President Obama's numbers continue to dccline.  Gallup reports the president's worst quarter since inauguration:

PRINCETON, NJ -- President Barack Obama's 11th quarter in office was the worst of his administration, based on his quarterly average job approval ratings. His 41% approval average is down six percentage points from his 10th quarter in office, and is nearly four points below his previous low of 45% during his seventh quarter.

These results are based on Gallup Daily tracking from July 20-Oct. 19, 2011. During this time, Obama's approval rating ranged narrowly between 38% and 43% for all but a few days of the quarter. The 38% approval ratings, registered on several occasions, are the lowest of his presidency to date.

And Rasmussen's news will also bring no joy to the White House:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 20% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -23...

...Overall, 42% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's job performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) at least somewhat disapprove.

COMMENT:  These numbers are being driven primarily by the economy.  The problem for Republicans, and it's a continuing one, is that, when matched head-to-head against specific Republican candidates, the president holds his own or even wins.  It shows, once again, that the GOP must do more to advance its own brand, and not depend on the weakness of Obama.  Statistically weak presidents have been re-elected before, as President Dewey found out in 1948.

October 22, 2011     Permalink