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SEPTEMBER 26,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:55 P.M. ET:

THE PAIN IN SPAIN WILL NO LONGER REMAIN – The Spanish legislature has just ended its session, signaling the runup to the November 20th national elections.  Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, no great friend of the United States, will not be running for reelection, and there's a very good chance his socialist party will lose in November.  That would be good news for us.  Spain was a firm ally in the war on terror until Zapatero, sometimes called "Bambi" for some reason, won in 2004.  We hope that a conservative victory will put Spain on a more rational international footing. 

DISGRACEFUL – The White House is making a big issue of the tasteless behavior of some audience members at several Republican debates.  In one case some applause seemed to suggest that the members favored letting people without health insurance die.  In another case there were boos for a citizen questioner – a gay soldier who'd served in Iraq.  But Jake Tapper, who plays it straight at ABC News, points out that "the boos and applause came from what sounded like less than a handful of individuals, it should be noted."  And that's the point.  These were huge audiences and a few people clearly engaged in vulgar behavior.  The overwhelming majority did not.  But this is standard fare for the left – proclaiming its own moral superiority, while suggesting that anyone on the other side is 1) cruel, 2) bigoted, and 3) ignorant.  Who needs successful policies when you can paint a picture like that?

OH, THANKS A LOT, GUYS – The interim government in Libya, known as the National Transitional Council, has declared the Lockerbie bombing case closed, and will not release any evidence that could lead to anyone else in Libya being charged.  Scottish prosecutors – Lockerbie is in Scotland – had asked for papers and access to witnesses so they could explore other suspects in the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people, the majority of them American.  The prosecutors were clearly looking for evidence linking Muammar Gaddafi to the crime.  Weren't these new Libyan leaders supposed to be our allies?  So much for the Arab spring.

HER AGAIN? – There is some renewed talk, especially in the New York media, about the possibility of Hillary Clinton rising again politically, possibly even replacing Barack Obama as the 2012 Democratic candidate.  The talk has been generated by some very unkind remarks that former President Bill Clinton made about Obama's economic plans.  (Obama immediately invited Clinton to play golf with him, possibly to put out the fires.)  But Hillary has apparently made clear to friends that she would never run against Obama in the primaries because she would lose the black vote immediately, and it wouldn't return on election day.  Her only hope for 2012 rests on Obama's dropping out, and I can't see that, barring an economic collapse.  The man is too great an egotist, and he couldn't stand being replaced by the woman he defeated in 2008. 

September 26, 2011      Permalink 

SNIPPET OF THE DAY - AT 7:05 P.M. ET:

From London's Telegraph:  From the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz to Meg, the good witch from the Meg and Mog children's books, witches have always dressed in black.  But their traditional attire has now come in for criticism from equality experts who claim it could send a negative message to toddlers in nursery and lead to racism.  Instead, teachers should censor the toy box and replace the pointy black hat with a pink one, while dressing fairies, generally resplendent in pale pastels, in darker shades.  Another staple of the classroom - white paper - has also been questioned by Anne O'Connor, an early years consultant who advises local authorities on equality and diversity.  Children should be provided with paper other than white to drawn on and paints and crayons should come in "the full range of flesh tones", reflecting the diversity of the human race, according to the former teacher.

Well, I guess that's the end of vanilla ice cream, White-Out, and Ivory soap.

POST-DEBATE POLL – AT 6:34 P.M. ET:  A new CNN poll, taken after the Republican debate last week, shows Perry still in the lead, despite a poor performance.  But it also shows Romney as the more electable candidate: 

Washington (CNN) - Despite his performances in the two most recent Republican presidential debates, a new national survey indicates that Texas Gov. Rick Perry remains on top of the field in the race for the GOP nomination.

But a CNN/ORC International Poll also indicates that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney does better than Perry in hypothetical 2012 general election matchups against President Barack Obama and matches evenly with the president on the issues and on personal characteristics.

According to the survey, which was released Monday, 28 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support Perry as their party's presidential nominee, with Romney at 21 percent.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at ten percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who's making his third bid for the White House, former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show host Herman Cain, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, all at seven percent. The poll indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is at four percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at three percent and former Utah Gov. and ambassador to China Jon Huntsman at one percent.

Palin has flirted with a bid for the GOP nomination, but the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has not taken any concrete steps towards launching a campaign. Taking Palin out of the mix produces a similar result: 30 percent for Perry, 22 percent for Romney, 11 percent for Gingrich, and all other candidates in single digits.

The poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, after last Thursday's debate in Orlando, Florida. Pundits and analysts rate Perry's performance in that debate, and in a debate one a week and a half earlier in Tampa, Florida, as uneven.

COMMENT:  The poll was taken among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.  There was apparently no requirement that the respondents had seen last week's debate.

Perry has a cultural advantage among conservatives, who tend to favor southern and southwestern candidates, certainly over a man who's been governor of Massachusetts.  At the same time, there is clearly a substantial discontent among conservatives.  I mean, when the presumed frontrunner only gets 28 percent, what does that tell you?

Let's see if Christie enters the race, and whether that makes a difference.

September 26, 2011     Permalink

THE TRUTH COMES OUT – AT 10:35 A.M. ET:  We tend to forget the viciousness of the campaign against the Bush administration and its appointees.  "Bush lied, thousands died" was only the start of it.  And remember that the Justice Department is still considering prosecutions of CIA officers for the crime of doing their jobs.  Although you can be sure that an unpopular move like that won't come until after the election, if the Obamans survive.

Now comes news that a highly publicized charge, and one that won a Pulitzer Prize, has turned out to be untrue, according to a full investigation.  From the Washington Times: 

A three-year government investigation has found no wrongdoing by Bush-era Pentagon officials when they gave war briefings to retired military analysts who served as TV and radio commentators.

The probe by the Pentagon inspector general was in response to a 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning article in the New York Times that implied the former military officers, some of whom worked for or were defense contractors, received financial favors in return for their commentary and were tools in a propaganda campaign.

Sources familiar with the IG’s final report said it will say officials broke no rules or laws when they provided information briefings, some from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The IG also found no evidence that any analyst or his defense contractor employer received favorable treatment or procurement contracts because of his work as an on-air commentator, according to the sources.

“The report basically says the Pentagon activities were in compliance with [Department of Defense] directives and instructions,” a government official familiar with the findings told The Washington Times. In terms of financial favors, “they didn’t find any evidence of that,” the source said.

COMMENT:  Does The New York Times give back the Pulitzer Prize?  Don't hold your breath.  The Times does not give back Pulitzer Prizes.  (Other newspapers have.)  But vindication must be sweet for those falsely charged.  And many are falsely charged, especially if they work for conservative administrations. 

Now I want to see another outrage cleared up – the charge that George W. Bush lied about WMD to justify invading Iraq.  He did not.  He used the same information that Bill Clinton had used.  And while it is true that the weapons inspectors did not find stockpiles of WMD in Iraq, they did find the WMD programs, ready to be restarted once sanctions on Iraq were lifted.  That part gets left out of news stories.  I guess the dog ate that section of the inspectors' report.

September 26, 2011       Permalink

OH DEAR, OH DEAR, I GUESS IT REALLY ISN'T 2008 – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  We've reported that President Obama is trying to tighten up his base, which also means re-energizing the African-American vote.  Apparently, there's one key black leader, a certified bomb thrower, who isn't convinced.

Maxine Waters is a hard-left congresswoman, racialist, and all-around spoilsport from California.  She is, for some unfathonable reason, influential in the Congressional Black Caucus, and she has been on Obama's case recently.  The charge:  He has been inattentive to his own ethnic group.  So Obama went and gave a speech over the weekend to a major black audience, and Maxine still is ruffled.  From The Politico: 

Rep. Maxine Waters on Monday called President Barack Obama’s comments to black Americans that they should stop complaining “a bit curious” and said she doesn’t “know who he was talking to.”

The California Democrat told CBS’s “Early Show” the president would never have addressed other communities like gays or Jews or Hispanics in the way he did at the annual awards dinner for the Congressional Black Caucus on Saturday when he told the audience to “stop complaining.”

“I don’t know who he was talking to, because we’re certainly not complaining,” said Waters, who has been critical of Obama in the past. “We are working. We support him and we are protecting that base because we want people to be enthusiastic about him when that election rolls around.”

Obama told the audience at the annual gala to “take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC.”

Waters said she found some of the language Obama used “not appropriate” and said it “surprised me a little bit.”

I'm no fan of Maxine Waters, but she does have a point.  Obama was very patronizing...although politicians often feel that they can speak differently to their own group. 

“I found that language a bit curious because the president spoke to the Hispanic Caucus and certainly they are pushing him on immigration and despite the fact that he's appointed [Justice Sonia] Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, he has an office for excellence in Hispanic education right in the White House, they’re still pushing him and he certainly didn’t tell them to stop complaining,” she said.

COMMENT:  It's hard to know how much this reflects black opinion, but if Maxine is unhappy, her unhappiness is bound to spread.  The issue here is not whether blacks will support Obama in 2012.  They will.  The issue is the level of that support.  Remember that Obama is of mixed race.  If he's seen as "going white" it could dim the enthusiasm of a community that, very understandably, cheered his election in 2008 as a major breakthrough. 

Black unemployment is high, and it's not getting better.  While ethnic solidarity is an important factor in American politics, it has sometimes come apart under the pressure of compelling issues.  Just a few weeks ago we saw that happen in New York's 9th Congressional District, an iconic Democratic district that had been Democratic since the early 1920s.  The district has a large proportion of orthodox Jews, and yet rejected an orthodox Jewish Democrat in favor of a Roman Catholic Republican – out of anger at Obama.

Times they are a-changin'. 

September 26, 2011      Permalink

ANOTHER CLOSE CALL – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  How long will the free nations remain lucky in the fight against terror?  We've broken up a number of attacks since 9/11, ten years ago.  But new attempts are being made all the time.  There have been major arrests in Britain, as Fox reports: 

LONDON – Six men have been charged with involvement in a terror-bomb plot, police announced on Sunday.
The arrests last Monday of the six Birmingham-area men were part of a "major operation" by the West Midlands counterterrorism unit, the West Midlands police department said...

...Four were charged with preparing for an act of terrorism, and two more with failing to disclose information, the police said. One of those two was also charged with terrorist fundraising.

All six, who are aged between 25 and 32, will appear at West London Magistrates Court on Monday.

The police said Irfan Nasser, 30, Irfan Khalid, 26, Ashik Ali, 26, and Rahin Ahmed, 25, were charged with plotting terrorist acts.

They were involved in planning between Dec. 25, 2010 and Sept. 19 of this year to prepare or help others prepare to commit acts of terrorism, the department said.

Nasser and Ali are alleged to have planned a bombing campaign; stated an intention to be a suicide bomber; collected money for terrorism; made or helped others make a bomb; and recruited others for terrorism, police said.

Nasser and Khalid are also accused of traveling to Pakistan for terrorism training including bomb-making, weapons and poison-making, as well as making a martyrdom film, police said.

Ahmed is accused of helping others travel to Pakistan for terrorism training, collecting money for terrorism and investing and managing terrorist funds, police said.

COMMENT:  Again, Pakistan.  Our problems with that nation are growing, and it's one of the key nations in Asia, as well as being a nuclear power. 

I wonder who gives the terrorism training in Pakistan.  Are there regular courses?  Scholarships?  Affirmative action?  Who teaches poison-making?  I'd love to see some real investigative reporting on this underbelly of Pakistani society.  It could easily affect us here in the United States.

September 26, 2011       Permalink

THE CONTEST – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  This is a "waiting" week in American politics.  The conventional wisdom is that the Republican race for president has become very fluid, given that the crown seems to have fallen off Rick Perry's head, after only a month of wear.  I think he can get a refund at Neiman-Marcus in Dallas.

And yet Romney, the immediate beneficiary of Perry's near-death experience in the debates, is not the recipient of any renewed love.  Herman Cain's victory in the Florida straw poll proved that – probably the first time in history that a former pizza executive defeated two governors. 

The "waiting" is now for Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey and favorite of the budget cutters.  As we've said, if Christie gets in it will throw the GOP race wide open...at least for a time.  Christie, like Perry, will have to prove himself in the GOP debates coming up.  And then attention may well turn to Sarah Palin, who appears to be delaying her decision.  It's been pointed out that Bill Clinton didn't get into the 1992 race until October of the previous year.  Things move more rapidly today, though.  Look for a possible Christie announcement, one way or the other,  

On the Democratic side, Obama is moving to solidify and energize his base, understanding that elections are about turnout.  The winner will not be the best or most popular candidate, but the candidate who moves enough voters to the polls.  Obama has clearly lost the stature he had at the start of his administration, having shown a remarkable ability to get things wrong, but he retains some affection, especially from his political base.  The main thrust of his campaign seems to be that he's the devil we know, and better than the devilish alternative.  Obama is already claiming that a Republican president would ruin America.  Funny, I thought Obama had already accomplished that.

Now, what if Christie gets into the race, and does a Perry?  Republicans are clearly unhappy with their choices.  And we wonder whether, through the work of conservative journalists, the spotlight might suddenly focus on a non-candidate who will be encouraged to get into the race and save the party.  Stranger things have happened.  Stand by.

September 26, 2011     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 25,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:59 P.M. ET:

REALISM IN NEW YORK –  New York's superb police commissioner, Ray Kelly, says that the New York Police Department now has the capacity to bring down a plane, under extreme circumstances.  Kelly was commenting on the fact that cities, in fast-developing situations, cannot depend on the federal government alone.  There are three major airports in the New York metropolitan area, and the nightmare scenario is for an airliner to take off from one, with a suicide pilot at the controls, and circle around quickly to hit a building.  Obviously, from what Kelly is saying, New York wanted its own capability to stop a rapid attack.  One assumes he is talking about shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles.

MORE, MORE! – The head of the International Monetary Fund says the fund may need a bailout from member nations to stem the European debt crisis.  Freely translated:  Americans, among others, will be expected to come up with the cash to save Europe's welfare states.  We will then be reviled for doing so by those same countries.  At the same time, fingernails are being bitten in Europe over the possibility that Greece may default within days or weeks, and can bring down the German government, which is heavily involved in trying to solve the Greek crisis.

A CHRISTIE MOMENT? – Reince Priebus, the new head of the Republican National Committee, says that there is still time for someone new to jump into the race for the GOP presidential nomination.  One wonders if he had Chris Christie in mind.  As we reported earlier, Christie may announce this week if he's in or out.  If in, it will throw open the whole race...at least for the time Christie is flavor of the month.  Who will the October flavor be?

September 25, 2011     Permalink

WHY DID IT TAKE A BRITISH WRITER? – AT 12:01 P.M. ET:  We've said here before, and I see that many others are now making the same point, that often the most incisive commentary about America is written by friendly British writers.  One of the best is Toby Harnden of London's Telegraph.

We all watched the circus surrounding the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia last week.  Whether you favor or reject the death penalty, I would hope reasonable people would be repelled by the twisting of facts, the outright lies, and the blatant anti-Americanism surrounding "protests" in the case.  The usual suspects were involved, of course, including Jimmy Carter and Demond Tutu, and of course the European leftists were out in force with their "I am Troy Davis" sweatshirts.  They claimed that Davis was actually just a sweet innocent, a victim of American racism.  Harnden exposes the fraud:

We saw “I am Troy Davis” T-shirts being worn as far afield as London, the message being that Davis was somehow plucked randomly from the streets and arbitrarily condemned, perhaps because he was black.

Unfortunately, little about the Davis case fits this naïve picture. A jury of seven blacks and five whites found that Davis, who had a street name of “Rah”, standing for “Rough As Hell”, had been pistol-whipping a homeless man in a Burger King car park and had shot a police officer, Mark MacPhail, dead when he intervened.

Again and again, courts confirmed the Davis conviction as being on legally solid ground. Lynchings were carried out by racist mobs rushing to judgement, dragging their quarry out to string them up from a tree. To describe a two-decade legal process that twice went to the highest court in the land as a “lynching” is to try to strip the word of all meaning. 

And...

I wonder, too, whether all this just makes the agony of victims’ relatives more acute. The actor Alec Baldwin used the Davis case to attack the MacPhails, stating on Twitter: “Wonder if the McPhail [sic] family will seek death penalty for US leaders who killed thousands of US soldiers and countless innocent Iraqis."

Most Americans were unmoved by the slick publicity campaign surrounding the Davis case, preferring to rely on the sober assessments of the courts rather than the likes of Alec Baldwin, the European Union (who one might have thought would have had other things to worry about) and people campaigning via Twitter.

COMMENTARY:  Solid commentary from Toby Harnden.  Unfortunately, I didn't see anything quite as good on this side of the Atlantic. 

The leftists were trying to create another Mumia case.  You remember him, I'm sure.  He was the guy in Pennsylvania convicted of murdering a police officer, and who actually never denied his guilt.  He is still on death row after decades of appeals, and a major international campaign proclaiming him a victim of American racism. 

The leftist line never changes.  The leftists just pick new "victims" to exploit.  The only victims in the Mumia and Troy Jackson cases were the police officers who were murdered.

September 25, 2011      Permalink

WELL, I GUESS IT'S SOMETHING – AT 11:02 A.M. ET:  The Saudi lobby in America, which has graced the bank accounts of a number of former U.S. officials, has done a fine job of presenting Saudi Arabia as a moderate friend of the United States...never quite explaining why 15 of the 19 9-11 hijackers came from the Saudi kingdom.  In fact, Saudi Arabia is the world's leading exporter of radical Islam.

So, whenever something good happens in the oil-rich country, we note it, as much in amusement as anything else.  You can be sure the press releases will be flying this morning, announcing that Saudi Arabia has gone democratic.  From London's Telegraph:

Saudi King Abdullah has given the kingdom's women the right to vote for first time in nationwide local elections, due in 2015.

The king said in an annual speech on Sunday before his advisory assembly, or Shura Council, that Saudi women will be able to run and cast ballots in the 2015 municipal elections.

Abdullah says women will also be appointed to "join the all-male" Shura Council.

Saudi Arabia held its first-ever municipal elections in 2005.

The kingdom will hold its next municipal elections on Thursday, but women are not able to vote or run at this time.

Women rights activists have long fought to gain the right to vote in the kingdom that applies a strict version of Sunni Islam and bans women from driving or travelling without the consent of a male guardian.

Yeah.  Apparently not much change in that no-driving ban or going out without a male escort.  But who are we to judge, right?  It's another cultural expression. 

We're happy to see a bit of progress.  But the condition of women, and minorities, in Saudi Arabia is still disgraceful.  There are, for example, no churches or synagogues in the royal Saudi kingdom because none are permitted. 

When you have oil, and can spread money around American universities, who needs freedom?

Of course, we thank the gracious king for his kindness, and are confident that he'll stop the next scheduled stoning of a woman.

September 25, 2011     Permalink

CHRISTIE AND REAGAN? – AT 10:36 A.M. ET:  Increasing buzz about Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, who, until last week, said he was adamant about not running for president, but now is reported to be reconsidering.

On Tuesday Christie speaks at the Reagan Library, an ideal time and place to announce his candidacy.  I have no idea whether, after all these months of denial, he will reverse himself. 

Words of caution:  Parties tend to look for the man on the white horse, who will gallop in and slay the opposition.  In 2008 the Republicans waited for Fred Thompson, billed as the new Reagan.  Thompson heard the call, entered, and flopped immediately.  A month or so ago, Republicans looked to Rick Perry, whose white horse was already being washed and watered.  Perry got in, has achieved frontrunner status, and has run into trouble.  Poor debate performance, lack of ability to project beyond Texas.

Now Chris Christie may be mounting up.  Why?  Because he's an effective cost cutter, and has a fast mouth, talking back to anyone who asks him a challenging question.  But Christie has zero foreign-policy experience, is a first-term governor, believes in the Church of the Global Warming, often comes off as a bully rather than a leader, has an odd and disturbing relationship with some Islamic extremists, calls anyone concerned about Sharia law "crazy," and, frankly, is so horribly overweight that his health will become an instant issue.  But he is a good cost cutter. 

Christie has handled some things admirably.  But we are talking here of the American presidency, a gift we simply don't bestow on someone who is neat at budgets.  It takes much more than that.  And here is, I think, an intriguing question:  If some overly enthusiastic Republicans are willing to go with a first-term governor with so little experience beyond local politics, why would they not seek to draft Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a first-term senator with a remarkable persona and a true wisdom that comes through in every speech he makes?  There is a potential president, and he could defeat Obama.  Christie?  I don't know.

September 25, 2011     Permalink