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FRIDAY,  NOVEMBER 20,  2009

LOUISIANA HAYRIDE - AT 10:28 P.M. ET:  Why is it that the name "Louisiana" and the term "honest government" are rarely seen together? 

A few days after we reported that a $100-million earmark that could only be applied to Louisiana was put into the health "reform" bill to attract the vote of that state's on-the-fence senator, Mary Landrieu, the senator has hinted at her direction.  After deep thought, much prayer, and considerable contemplation about what was best for her people, Senator Landrieu tells us she's leaning toward "yes."

It is so moving to see such a powerful, moral intellect brought to bear on a decision.  Why, I never would have guessed that the senator would see the wisdom in "yes."  That $100-million earmark reminds me of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song from "Flower Drum Song," A Hundred Million Miracles:

A hundred million miracles,
A hundred million miracles are happ'ning ev'ry day,
And those who say they don't agree
Are those who do not hear or see.
A hundred million miracles,
A hundred million miracles are happ'ning ev'ry day...

Especially in the Senate, and especially when the people's money is thrown around by people who have ready access to it.

Yuch.

November 20,  2009   Permalink

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED, TO FIND OUT THERE'S THINKING GOING ON - AT 9:42 P.M. ET:  We knew the day had to come when some people would figure out that global warming isn't as, I apologize for this, hot as it's cracked up to be.  From Spiegel online:

Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

Whatever the explanation, maybe we'd better nail down the facts before we spend trillions of dollars on junk science, possibly wrecking economies and making the world's poor even poorer.

The Earth's average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.

Ironically, climate change appears to have stalled in the run-up to the upcoming world summit in the Danish capital, where thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, business leaders and environmental activists plan to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Billions of euros are at stake in the negotiations.

Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see.  The batteries in the calculator just went dead, that's all.

Even though the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend, it does raise doubts about the predictive value of climate models, and it is also a political issue. For months, climate change skeptics have been gloating over the findings on their Internet forums. This has prompted many a climatologist to treat the temperature data in public with a sense of shame, thereby damaging their own credibility.

And maybe for good reason.  I think we've had more political science here than real science.

"It cannot be denied that this is one of the hottest issues in the scientific community," says Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. "We don't really know why this stagnation is taking place at this point."

Of course, the article goes on to pretty much endorse the conventional, trendy wisdom on warming - that it will resume, but the endorsement is half-hearted.  Many, many scientists are questioning what Al Gore has been preaching. 

Remember that careers are involved here.  Careers are often more important than the truth.

November 20,  2009   Permalink

OBAMA'S MAYOR GOES BATTY - AT 8:49 P.M. ET:  One thing about the late Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago - he may have been gruff, but he wasn't nuts.  We're really not so sure about his son, who has proposed a theory as to why Oprah Winfrey is shutting down her talk show, based in Chicago.  He proposes this theory at a time when parts of Chicago have become a shooting gallery, with kids gunned down regularly:

CHICAGO (CBS) — Mayor Daley had words of admiration for Oprah Winfrey on Thursday and suggested unfair criticism about her closure of Michigan Avenue may have expedited her departure from Chicago.

Daley said Thursday evening he's going to call Oprah to get the real story. But he's obviously concerned that if she says farewell to this city it'll be a blow to Chicago's image.

Image?

"I think she was the most successful woman that we will ever know in the history of this country," Daley said at a fundraising event for United Negro College Fund.

As we said, the mayor's mental state is in doubt.

The mayor says it was the flap over the show's season opener on Michigan Avenue in September that may have helped set Oprah's travel plans in stone. There was criticism about shutting down the Magnificent Mile for days for the taping. She reimbursed the city for costs related to the closure.

"That became a big rhubarb in the Chicago press -- beat up Oprah," Daley told reporters. "So you keep kicking people, people will leave, simple as that."

COMMENT:  Maybe the city should withhold the mayor's paycheck this week, just to hint that he might want to get back to the job. 

Maybe Oprah should talk to him.

November 20,  2009   Permalink

THE AFGHAN TRAGEDY - AT 8:23 P.M. ET:  President Obama specifically said during his election campaign, and after, that Afghanistan was a war of necessity.  He cannot take back those words.  And yet, every signal he sends negates that clear position.  Apparently, now that the president must face the fact that he's not running a student government, the war has become much less necessary.  His endless delays and waffling are taking a toll.  From The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have turned the focus of Afghan war planning toward an exit strategy, publicly declaring that the U.S. and its allies can't send additional troops without a plan for getting them out.

The shift has unnerved some U.S. and foreign officials, who say that planning a pullout now -- with or without a specific timetable -- encourages the Taliban to wait out foreign forces and exacerbates fears in the region that the U.S. isn't fully committed to their security.

And, let's face it, under this administration the U.S. isn't committed to anyone's security, including our own.

"It's not a good idea," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D., Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

He is a Democrat, and represents Harry Truman's old home town of Independence, Missouri.  Skelton's remark demonstrates something we've reported - the new willingness of Democrats to criticize Obama.

"When the area has been stabilized...then it's time to go home. But to set up a timetable for people in that neck of the woods, they'll just wait us out," said Rep. Skelton, a prominent supporter of proposals by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Kabul, to send more troops for a counterinsurgency campaign.

McChrystal has already been marginalized by the administration, which hand-picked him only months ago.

Look, it may be that all this talking and agonizing will result in a workable policy.  It's the result that counts.  But the constant image sent out - what Walter Lippmann called "the picture in our heads" is of weakness and indecision.  Nothing encourages an enemy more.

There is much talk among the chattering classes that President Obama doesn't want Afghanistan to turn into his "Vietnam."  That's become pretty standard rhetoric in some circles.  It's fine - if you get an understanding of Vietnam right, which most on the left don't.  As I was reminded in a personal conversation with a Vietnam-era fighter pilot a few days ago, we never lost one engagement in Vietnam.  The war was never lost on the battlefield.  We lost through defeatism, disturbingly inaccurate reporting, and a deflation of political will.

The part of Vietnam that we're seeing now is that part, the loss of will, not battlefield problems.  Yes, of course, there are serious issues involving military action, strategy, and tactics.  But it's the political side that is now placing success in doubt.  So Afghanistan can indeed become Obama's Vietnam, but for reasons other than what the president thinks.

November 20,  2009   Permalink

THE DOWNWARD TREND - AT 9:43 A.M. ET:  Rasmussen has just released his tracker for Friday.  What's striking is the repeat of spread in Ras's presidential approval index:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14.

Today’s results match the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President and it’s the third straight day at -14. Prior to these three days, Obama’s ratings had fallen to -14 on only one day since taking office.

Obama doesn't fare much better in overall approval:

Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) now disapprove.

Rasmussen polls among likely voters, which we see here as the kind of polling most likely to be reflected in an election.

We stress, of course, that polls are snapshots, and can change quickly.  Also, this year's polling is not necessarily predictive of conditions next November, the time of major elections.

But what gets our attention is the intensity of the opposition to Obama.  The fact that 41% strongly disapprove his performance, and that this number has shown up three days in a row, has got to worry the White House.  Intensity is a critical factor in who goes to the polls, and who doesn't.  It was the intensity factor that worked powerfully in Obama's favor last year.  Now there's a reversal of fortune.

November 20, 2009   Permalink

THE INCREASING CONFIDENCE OF EXTREMISTS - AT 9:11 A.M. ET:  After the exploits of Major Hasan at Fort Hood, and the bitterly resented decision to try the mastermind of 9-11 in an ordinary court in New York, you'd think the jihadist crowd would lie low for a while.  But, of course, it's exactly the opposite.  They sense weakness in the administration, and they will exploit it, especially on our college campuses, where they're often more than welcome.  From the New York Post:

A controversial imam who authorities have called an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing is scheduled to speak tonight to a Muslim student group at Queens College on the subject "How Islam Perfected Thanksgiving."

The appearance by Brooklyn mosque imam Siraj Wahhaj - who also testified for convicted terror plotter "blind Sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman - and a recent nasty verbal altercation involving members of the Muslim Student Association that invited him, has spurred some other students to demand that Queens College cut off funding for that group.

Not a chance of that. 

Professor Tim Rosen said that at a screening of the anti-radical Muslim film "Fitna" two weeks ago, a MSA member was "laughing" and muttered "good" during footage showing American businessman Nicholas Berg being beheaded by terrorists in Iraq, and that the student was "giggling and saying 'good' " during footage of planes hitting the Twin Towers.

At a raucous post-screening debate with Queens College Republicans, who hosted the film, an MSA member said, "If I had enough money I would be part of the jihad army, I would kill all the Jews," recalled College Republicans treasurer Eli Karl.

Can you imagine what would happen to any student who got up and announced, "I want to kill all the Muslims"?

Mayor Bloomberg last week expressed regret for having Wahhaj attend a Nov. 12 City Hall meeting of Muslim leaders, where the mayor and the imam had shaken hands.

Queens College, when asked about Wahhaj issued a statement noting that speakers invited to campus are protected by the Constitutional guarantee of free speech.

I love it when colleges invoke the Constitution to protect extremists.  They rarely refer to it when the rights of others are involved. 

Queens College did not address a question about how campus security responded when some members of the College Republicans called security to report the MSA member who had mentioned "jihad" and a "bomb" after the movie screening.

I'd imagine that either there was no response, or the Republicans were chided for their cultural insensitivity.  It wasn't long ago that a dean at Pace College, five blocks from Ground Zero, threatened to report a group of students to the police for "hate speech" for daring to show the film "Obsession," which exposes Islamic extremism.

In many parts of the world - in Afghanistan, in Iran, in Western Europe, even in parts of Latin America, jihadists are asserting themselves, sensing that the man in the White House will do nothing but "engage" them.

November 20, 2009   Permalink

ANGER AT OBAMA BUILDS IN CONGRESS - AT 8:45 A.M. ET: We said at our Angel's corner last week that the preceding week might have been decisive for President Obama.  There seems to be a change in attitude toward him, extending into his own party.  There's a new anger, a feeling that Obama isn't doing the job or getting the results.  Sometimes that anger is directed at a Cabinet officer.  The Washington Post reports:

Growing discontent over the economy and frustration with efforts to speed its recovery boiled over Thursday on Capitol Hill in a wave of criticism and outright anger directed at the Obama administration.

We didn't expect to see a lead like that, especially in a liberal newspaper.

Episodes in both houses of Congress exposed the raw nerves of lawmakers flooded with stories of unemployment and economic hardship back home. They also underscored the stiff headwinds that the administration faces as it pushes to enact sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system while also trying to create jobs for ordinary Americans.

President Obama's allies in the Congressional Black Caucus, exasperated by the administration's handling of the economy, unexpectedly blocked one his top priorities, using a legislative maneuver to postpone the approval of financial reform legislation by a key House committee.

Two buildings away, at a session of the Joint Economic Committee, Republicans escalated their attacks on Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, including a call for his resignation.

Politicians study the polls, and the polls for President Obama have been going south.  It is now politically safer to criticize him, although it's often done indirectly.

However, please note that some of the criticism is coming from the left wing of the Democratic Party, which doesn't believe Obama is liberal enough. The problem is, the more Obama tilts in that wing's direction, the less popular he becomes with the great majority of Americans who aren't part of that group.

Obama, skilled at running for president, has been less skilled at handling the politics of the office.  He needs to look at Ronald Reagan, who could inspire his base while keeping a certain distance from it, allowing him to govern from the center right, which was politically defensible.

One great fear:  Obama might try to pacify his party's left by throwing them national-security bones, like going even softer on Iran and pulling back in Afghanistan.  There'd be ecstasy in San Francisco.

November 20, 2009   Permalink

IS RUDY BACK? - AT 8:26 A.M. ET:  There are reports that Rudy Giuliani, having ruled out a run for the governorship of New York next year, will instead run for the Senate, as the Wall Street Journal reports:

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who has been widely rumored to be interested in running for governor, is weighing "a real possibility" of seeking a U.S. Senate seat next year, a former Giuliani campaign aide said.

Mr. Giuliani has made no final decision, this person said, but said that the Republican is "more interested in running for Senate." He would seek the New York seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to the post last winter.

From a national standpoint, this is the critical part:

Some state Republicans said a run for a national office made more sense. Of late, Mr. Giuliani, who shepherded New York City through the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack, has criticized President Barack Obama's decision to try several of the alleged 9/11 plotters in a criminal trial in New York, rather than in a military venue. Mr. Giuliani, they said, has clearly been attracted to a national platform, where he could speak out on national-security issues.

A Rudy run in New York would make that trial the centerpiece of his campaign, and keep focusing national attention on the absurdity of the decision.  The anger in New York over the risks posed by the trial could electrify the campaign and give Rudy the national-security platform he seeks.

But Rudy faces substantial hostility from the African-American community in New York.  Although he saved more African-American lives through his anti-crime program than all mayors of New York combined, he did so without genuflecting to the black leadership, a civil crime in New York.  They tagged him a racist, which he is not, and the label has stuck in many neighborhoods.

The sparks will fly.  Bring on the sparks.

November 20,  2009   Permalink

THURSDAY,  NOVEMBER 19,  2009

OBAMA ASIA TRIP SCORE: ZIP - AT 8:01 P.M. ET:  The president is flying home from his Asian trip.  He didn't get the rock star treatment he's used to getting in Western Europe, probably because Asia hasn't entered a period of decadence yet.  He also didn't get any real results, as Mike Allen in The Politico notes:

SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama returns from his maiden Asian swing with none of the concrete accomplishments that White Houses typically put in place before big trips, setting up a stark test for his idealistic theory that the United States should act more like a wise neighbor than a swaggering superpower.

Idealistic theory is right.  It's great for a student government, not for a real one.

Obama’s minimalist approach was most consequential in China, where he did not meet with Christians, dissidents or bloggers, or directly challenge his hosts for repressive tactics that are again on the rise.

The Chinese in turn rebuffed longstanding U.S. concerns – whether on human rights, Iran or currency policy – in a heavily stage-managed visit where China, not Obama, clearly sought the upper hand.

If there was a merit badge for multicultural groveling, Obama would be wearing a Boy Scout sash a mile long. 

It’s an approach that carries great risk for Obama – playing straight into his critics’ accusations that his new, more multilateral style isn’t paying dividends, and worse, is making him look weak and ineffectual abroad.

Making him look weak?  He is weak.

“They don’t want this narrative that the U.S. is a declining power and China is a rising power, and the trip just reinforced that,” said Adam Segal, a senior fellow on China at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The sense of the trip was, ‘We’re not here to get in their face about these things.’”

Add to that the fact the main image of Obama abroad that really broke through to the American public out of the trip – Obama bowing to the Japanese emperor – didn’t exactly reinforce the image of a muscular leader abroad.

Yeah, that doesn't play well outside the Harvard faculty lounge.

David Axelrod, one of Obama's main political strategists, put the White House spin on things:

“This is not an immediate gratification business,” Axelrod said. “I understand that Washington is in the immediate gratification business. … [T]he ultimate measure is where these issues -- how these issues resolve in the weeks and months and years to come. And we have a greater chance for success because of this trip and others he's made.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Mike Allen puts it in English:

But the formulation puts the White House in the awkward position of promising results down the road. It wasn’t just the lack of hard results, but the tone of Obama’s remarks, even passing up opportunity to speak out more vocally against the repressive Chinese regime.

COMMENT:  Another lesson that countries don't give a damn whether an American president gets the teeny-bopper vote.  They do what's good for them.  That isn't necessarily good for us.  Most American presidents can tell the difference.  This one doesn't think it matters.

November 19, 2009   Permalink

THOMPSON BLASTS OBAMA - AT 7:12 P.M. ET:  Former Senator Fred Thompson, sounding very much like a presidential candidate for 2012, has issued the most articulate blast at Obama's Afghanistan policy that I've seen so far.

During the 2008 campaign, Thompson ran for the Republican nomination, but didn't seem to have the fire we'd seen in the man previously.  His campaign fell flat.  This statement is clearly crafted to draw attention and to give him national-security credentials:

Former Sen. Fred Thompson today intensified his party's criticism of President Obama's long deliberation over policy in Afghanistan, announcing that Obama's delay signals that "the war has been lost" and that nothing the president now does will "make any difference."

"It really doesn't matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby, how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the war has been lost," Thompson said on his radio show today. "I say this because of one sad and simple fact. The president does not have the will and determination to do what's necessary to win it. His heart's not in it, and never has been. The Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the American people know it.

"Our enemies are now emboldened and our friends are discouraged. We cannot prevail if the American people are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary for an extended effort. The case has not been made to them to justify this effort. The case can only be made by the president. This president is unable or unwilling to make that case," Thompson said.

Thompson's words seem to lay the groundwork for Republican opposition to further American engagement in Afghanistan, cast here as halfhearted.

"Take your time, Mr. President," Thompson said. "Unless you have a total change of heart and mind, it really doesn't make any difference."

COMMENT:  That is very tough stuff, directed at a sitting president.  Frankly, it's about time.  I love this part:  "The president does not have the will and determination to do what's necessary to win it."  In that sentence Thompson puts into words what many people feel, but cannot express.  That is one mark of a successful candidate.

I don't agree that Thompson is necessarily laying the groundwork for GOP opposition to further American engagement in Afghanistan.  He is more likely laying the groundwork for a Republican policy that will say, "Mr. President, either do it right or get out."  And the party will then demand that the president do it right. 

We need more statements like from the Republicans on foreign policy.  The party must, as a political strategy, take advantage of Obama's growing weakness.  Of course, it must be careful in its language and prescriptions.  But the timing is right for Thompson-like wording.

November 19, 2009   Permalink 

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK - AT 6:41 P.M. ET:  On-the-fence-on-health-reform Senator Mary Landrieu may be climbing off the fence...on the wrong side.  It turns out, as ABC reports, that a provision of the Senate's health "reform" bill seems to be a sweet offering to Mary:

What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?

Here’s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”

The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing "would" could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

COMMENT:  That's your tax money, folks.  And that's the way the game is played.  And on provisions like that does our health-care future depend.

To your good health.

November 19, 2009   Permalink 

MORE POLL WOES FOR THE WHITE HOUSE - AT 6:20 P.M. ET:  Again, more confirmation of the president's decline in the polls.  Fox Dynamics issued its report today:

President Obama's approval rating has hit a new low of 46 percent, according to a FOX News poll released Thursday. An equal number -- 46 percent -- disapprove of the job he's doing.

Breaking down the numbers by political party shows how sharply split American voters are over the president's job performance. While 85 percent of Democrats approve of their party leader, 80 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of independents disapprove.

And...

Despite the drop in Obama's approval rating, the president continues to outperform the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. More than twice as many Americans disapprove (63 percent) as approve (26 percent) of the job Congress is doing.

COMMENT:  Approval of the president in the Fox poll exactly matches the finding in the Rasmussen poll, posted just below.  Disapproval in the Rasmussen poll was higher.

We always stress that polls are snapshots in time, and can change abruptly.  Ronald Reagan had some bad poll numbers in his first term, then went on to win a landslide victory against Walter Mondale in 1984.  However, Reagan had the press against him.  Obama has it in the palm of his hand.  Still, his numbers keep dropping, and Congress's are an embarrassment.

If these numbers hold, Republicans will have a superb opportunity a year from now in the most crucial midterm elections of our era.  Whether they seize that opportunity is another matter altogether.

November 19, 2009   Permalink

OBAMA POLL WOES - AT 9:36 A.M. ET:  Rasmussen's Thursday report confirms the drop in President Obama's poll numbers that we've detected this week - after the bow to the emperor and the decision to try the 9-11 mastermind in New York.

For the second day, Ras's presidential approval index shows a 14-point gap between those who strongly approve and those who strongly disapprove of the president's performance.  It's 41% negative, 27 percent positive.

Overall approval:   Disapprove:  52%.  Approve:  46%.

Remember, in about six weeks we enter 2010, and the midterm campaigns begin.  The president's coattails look shorter each day.

November 19, 2009   Permalink

WHAT AN IRON FIST - MUST BE THE NEW BLACK BELT - AT 9:12 A.M. ET:  Well, that new black belt President Obama was awarded in South Korea is already making him a new man.  The president is getting tough with Iran.  Now, be careful.  You have to define "tough" in the land of Obama.  From AP via Fox News:

SEOUL, South Korea -- Showing impatience with Iranian foot-dragging, President Barack Obama said Thursday that the U.S. and its allies are discussing possible new penalties to bring fresh pressure on Iran for defying international attempts to halt its contested nuclear program.

We're so glad they're discussing.  Maybe the president can explain to us the fruits of his Iran policy.

Obama's warning came after Iran rejected a compromise proposal to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad so that it could not be further enriched to make weapons. Talk of fresh sanctions also showed that Obama is preparing for the next phase should Iran fail to meet his year-end deadline for progress in negotiations.

There's an escape clause there.  All Iran has to do is ask for "clarifications" on December 31st and the deadline can be extended.

"They have been unable to get to `yes', and so as a consequence, we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences," Obama said at a news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Huh?  The importance of consequences?  He's just learning that?

And get that language:  "They have been unable to get to 'yes..."  Sounds like a college project in building your negotiating skills.

"Our expectation is, is that over the next several weeks we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take that will indicate our seriousness to Iran."

Freely translated:  There are disagreements among the "allies."  That's why we have to talk amongst ourselves so much.

The tough talk came as Obama wrapped an eight-day, four-nation tour of Asia in which global issues -- nuclear disarmament, climate change, economic recovery -- dominated and goodwill abounded. There also were few new agreements on pending issues.

There never are with the Obama administration.  All hat, no cattle.

November 19, 2009    Permalink

THE WEIRDNESS CONTINUES - AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  We've been reading some infuriating articles based on "anonymous" administration sources who say that America must be prepared to counter a nuclear-armed Iran.  Thus the hints are out, and are widespread, that there really is no expectation of action that will stop that horrible prospect.  Great for the morale.

But a high administration official has caught the fever.  Hey, defeat isn't fatal, y'know.  There are alternatives.  Read this, from The Washington Times:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. let stand Wednesday a claim that confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will remain in U.S. custody even if he is acquitted in the so-called "trial of the century" scheduled for a New York courtroom.

The claim arose during a tense Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, at which Mr. Holder defended from a storm of Republican criticism his decision to bring five suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks to trial in New York.

"It's my understanding that if [Mohammed] is not convicted, and somehow the judge lets him off on a technicality or something, then he becomes an enemy combatant, and then you are right back where you started," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican. "So what do you gain?"

Mr. Grassley moved on to another topic without waiting for a reply, and Mr. Holder did not return to the question, though he did say elsewhere in the hearing that he is convinced Mohammed will be convicted.

But the assertion raises questions whether the trial will send the powerful message about America's legal values that Mr. Holder has said it will.

COMMENT:  Incredible.  Holder is not disputing the chance that KSM will be let off, and will then have to be held on some other basis.  Can you just imagine that?  Can you just imagine the publicity around the world?  Can you just imagine the jubilation on America's leftist campuses?  Can you just imagine the ecstasy at The New York Times? 

It could happen, and the fiasco could then be blamed on BUSH (!!) and his detention and interrogation policies.  We kind of have the feeling that's the purpose of the trial in the first place, but we hope we're wrong.

Holder's decision has turned into one of the lowest moments of the time of Obama.  As we said yesterday, don't be shocked if it's eventually reversed, under political pressure.

November 19, 2009   Permalink

OH, HE'S DONE IT AGAIN - AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  Nobel peace laureate and newly minted black belter Barack Hussein Obama has apparently shown once again what a sophisticated international traveler he is.  R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. caught the moment in The American Spectator:

WASHINGTON -- What would the mainstream media's response be if former governor Sarah Palin described China's economic growth to an audience of students in Shanghai as "an accomplishment unparalleled in human history"? That is what the most inexperienced president in modern American history said in Shanghai this week. I wonder if any of the assembled journalists choked. President Barack Obama makes such unhinged pronouncements with the kind of frequency that if he were anyone else he would be set down by the media as a boobie. I take that back. Vice President Joe Biden is equally gaffable, yet no one in the mainstream press makes him out to be a boobie. When he was tapped to be Senator Obama's running mate he was widely acknowledged -- from ABC to NBC and with all the like-minded newspapers in between -- as a foreign policy colossus.

QUOTE:  But we're sure that the Chinese equivalent of Chris Matthews got a tingle up his leg when the president praised Chinese economic growth. 

Tyrrell goes on to demonstrate the double standard.  Obama makes a gaffe like that and no one in the MSM points it out.  Sarah Palin makes the perfectly reasonable statement that Alaska is close to Russia geographically, and the media howls.

It's our nation, though, that will eventually pay the price for the immaturity flooding through the gates today.

November 19, 2009   Permalink

BULLETIN - AT 8:14 P.M. ET:  Nobel peace laureate Barack Obama has been awarded the black belt in tae kwan do for zero years of training and practice. There must be something in the air. 

Andrew Malcolm, at the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket, gives us the exciting details of dear leader's latest triumph:

Anyway, there he was in Seoul, South Korea on the last stop of his journey.

And out of the Seoul sky, President Lee Myung-bak hands over to the American leader a tae kwan do outfit. And then Lee, who practices tae kwan do himself, presents Obama with a coveted black belt.

After 0 long years of study.

There are also reports that the White House will announce later today that the president is pregnant, and will have a baby in May.

November 19,  2009   Permalink