SATURDAY,  OCTOBER 24,  2009

HE MAY NOT SHOW UP - AT 9:32 P.M. ET:  We may have real history in the making.  Take note - this is what you'll tell your children or grandchildren about.  "Why, I remember the time..."  They'll come closer to you, wanting to hear every word.

There is news that Barack Obama may not show up at an international conference in a place where he's loved.  This has not happened.  Read, please:

President Obama will probably not attend the U.N. conference on climate change in December because it is not a "head of state" event, but may use his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize as a platform to address climate change issues.

Oh, come on.  Everyone knows he was scheduled to go.  This guy would show up at a cemetery if he could hear the applause.  The reason he's not going is that he has nothing to show for his "climate change" efforts here in imperialist, pollution-puffing Amerika, where the forces of darkness are stopping his saving of the world at every turn.

President Obama is "leaning toward not going" to the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, a senior administration official told Fox News.

The current thinking in the administration is that since the conference is not a "head of state" event, Obama will not attend. Obama will be accepting the Nobel Prize in Oslo on the second day of the Copenhagen conference and may use that platform to address climate change issues.

He's got to go to that one.  And they'll clap.  And now the truth:

One big reason the Copenhagen conference is not a "head of state" event is because of the slow progress of climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate. Absent Senate passage of a climate change bill mandating a cap-and-trade system, Obama will have nothing to bring to Copenhagen as part of a U.S.-led effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a factor likely to undermine global efforts to curb those emissions.

COMMENT:  What does Obama say?  What excuse does he give?  Does a new Ed McMahon go to the conference and announce, "Barack can't make it tonight, but sitting in for him is David Letterman."  (Cue music.)

Or maybe the president can get a note from Nancy Pelosi saying he's needed at home.  Could work.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

WHO ARE WE TO QUESTION ANOTHER CULTURE? - AT 7:02 P.M. ET:  A stark example of what we're up against in radical Islam.  From AP:

A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes.

Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment. The charges against her include involvement in the preparation of the program and advertising the segment on the Internet.

Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and
Information, told The Associated Press he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it.

In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes.

His television appearance shocked many in this conservative kingdom.

Saudi Arabia, which is the birthplace of Islam, enforces strict segregation of the sexes. An unrelated couple, for example, can be detained for being alone in the same car or having a cup of coffee in public. Saudis observe such segregation even at home, where they have separate living rooms for male and female guests.

COMMENT:  We await the reaction of "human rights" and "feminist" groups to this latest outrage.  We also await the reaction of the United States Government, and, of course, the multiculturalists in our universities.

The sound you hear is silence.

October 24, 2009   Permalink 

OUT OF CONTROL - AT 6:55 P.M. ET:  A Dem congressman should know he's in trouble when he's too much even for Chris Matthews.  The Politico reports on the latest adventures of Alan Grayson of Florida:

Here's Rep. Alan Grayson's money comment on Hardball last night, where the loudmouthed freshman congressman compares former Vice President Dick Cheney to a vampire:

REP. ALAN GRAYSON: “By the way, I have trouble listening to what [Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he’s talking, but my response is this: he’s just angry because the president doesn’t shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?”

MATTHEWS: Oh, God, we got to keep a level here.

Matthews also dubbed Grayson “Captain Cajones” at the end of the congressman’s MSNBC appearance.

Can you imagine the reaction in the mainstream media if a Republican had said something like that?  Yet, there is no condemnation of Grayson, and no apology, or demand for one, on the part of Democrats.

Grayson recently compared America's health system to the Holocaust. 

He is a graduate of Harvard, and went through Harvard in three years.  Must say something about Harvard.

October 24, 2009    Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 11:38 A.M. ET:  From Michael Barone, in the Washington Examiner, on the White House assault on Fox News, including the charge that Fox isn't a legitimate news organization, like the others:

"Other news organizations, like yours," Obama consigliere David Axelrod told ABC News, "ought not to treat them that way."

In other words, when Fox breaks the news that the White House green czar is a self-proclaimed "Communist" or that operatives of pro-Obama ACORN have been aiding and abetting child prostitution, other news outlets should spike the story. Or risk being demoted from great friend to bad apple.

Last February, Obama told Fox News (to which I am a contributor), "I don't always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that's part of how democracy is supposed to work. You know, we're not supposed to all be in lockstep here."

Now we are. Maybe Obama thought everyone in Washington would be his great friend. Having encountered un-Chicago-like dissent and disagreement, he has responded with classic Chicago brass knuckles. We'll see how far this kind of thuggery gets him.

COMMENT:  Well said.  One of the mistakes Jimmah Carter made, among many others, was bringing to Washington a group of local operatives and setting them loose on the national stage.  They didn't know the territory.

Obama has done the same with his Chicago crowd, which apparently thinks the St. Valentine's Day massacre was good sport. 

The president is being hurt, and doesn't realize it.  Neither did Carter.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

THE DEFENDERS OF OUR RIGHTS STRIKE AGAIN - AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Is there no end to the laughter provided by "human rights" groups?  These self-appointed protectors of The Rights of Man always, for some strange reason, wind up supporting dictators and totalitarians, all in the name of decency.  Now they're on their high horses again, refusing to visit Guantanamo Bay until their demands are met, even though Gitmo is being run by their dream president.  Fox News, that key member of the axis of evil, reports:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Three human rights groups said Friday they will spurn an invitation to tour the Guantanamo Bay prison next month because it doesn't include an opportunity to speak with prisoners.

We're sure the prisoners would be entirely honest, and report precisely on their experiences.

Amnesty International USA, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch all said the recent Defense Department invitation falls short of the full access to the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba that they jointly requested in a January letter to President Barack Obama.

My heart breaks - especially since all three organizations have already come to conclusions about the camp.  Nothing like neutral observers.

"What is needed and is still being denied .... is full access to the detention camps, including detainees, so that we may independently review and report on the conditions of confinement there," said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program.

Ah, old Jamil.  Another culturally sensitive type.  In fact, Gitmo is probably one of the best run facilities of its type in the world.  The Red Cross regularly inspects.  So do members of Congress.  This is no Devil's Island. 

A fourth group invited on the tour, Human Rights First, raised similar objections but hasn't yet decided how to respond to the invitation, which came in an Oct. 8 letter from Philip E. Carter, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee policy.

The four regularly send observers to the proceedings of the war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo but have sought to inspect the prison camps and meet with prisoners, hoping to provide the Obama administration with an outside assessment of conditions.

We hope they let us know the next time they're given full access to a Taliban detention camp.  We hear they have hot tubs and widescreen TV.

They were seeking far more than the standard short and superficial tours offered to journalists, lawmakers and other visitors to the U.S. base in Cuba. Instead, they wanted a role more like that of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which interviews prisoners but issues confidential reports to the government.

Maybe they'll demand movie rights as well, and the right to produce a Gitmo talk show.

Gitmo got a bad name because of the inventions of the political left and its amen corner in the press, and the unimaginative information policies of the Bush administration. 

So-called "human rights groups" tend to parrot the left-wing line.  They might devote more attention to the world's dictatorships.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE SEE - AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  The White House can curse Fox News as much as it wants to, but Fox News clearly isn't the problem.  The White House is the problem.  The president seems to be on a perpetual campaign tour.  Governing almost seems boring to him - too much detail, too little time. 

Here we have another example, and with it more damage to the "presidential" part of the president's weakening image.  From The Christian Science Monitor:

President Obama helped raise $600,000 Friday for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s reelection campaign – and it looks as if the governor is going to need it.

Governor Patrick faces an uphill battle in his bid for reelection in 2010, largely due to voters’ perceptions of how he has handled the state’s economy. Recent polls show him trailing his Republican challengers, despite the fact that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts 3 to 1.

At a fundraising luncheon Friday, the president said, “I want everybody to understand this: What happens in Massachusetts is going to have implications all across the country.”

Mr. Obama, who still enjoys high favorability ratings in Massachusetts, said Washington lawmakers, in particular, will be looking to the Bay State next November.

“Frankly, people on Capitol Hill, they watch the tea leaves,” he said. If they see a governor get tossed out who is implementing universal healthcare and progressive education initiatives, he added, they’ll be less likely to support those initiatives themselves, according to Politico.

COMMENT:  Well, you know, maybe if there was some real leadership from the White House, people wouldn't have to read state-level tea leaves. 

Again, the president sounds like a local politician.  He has not grown into the size of the presidential office.  You cannot be an entertainer/fundraiser and expect, ultimately, to be taken that seriously. 

President Reagan always wore a jacket when he entered the Oval Office, to show his respect for the presidency.  Obama wears Rahm Emanuel.  There is a difference.

October 24, 2009   Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS - AT 10:19 A.M. ET:  Rasmussen reports that Obama can't seem to improve his position in the polls, in part because his priorities seem out of touch with the people:

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters say cutting the federal budget deficit in half in the next four years should be the Obama administration's top priority, while 23% say health care reform is most important.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 17% say the emphasis should be on ensuring that every child has access to a complete and competitive education, while 16% cite the development of new sources of energy.

Clearly, Americans are deeply concerned about driving the country into bankruptcy.  Once again, they show greater wisdom than their leaders.  We can only have the goodies we want if we can afford them, or if our children can afford them.  Bankrupting the country in the name of "progress" will inevitably backfire.  It's no progress at all.

At the same time, the Republican Party doesn't exactly get bouquets:

Just 15% of Republicans who plan to vote in 2012 state primaries say the party’s representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing Republican values.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 73% think Republicans in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters from throughout the nation. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided.
These numbers are basically unchanged from a survey in late April.

Republican women are nearly twice as likely as men to say their representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing GOP values. Younger voters tend to be less critical than their elders.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of likely GOP primary voters rate economic issues as the priority in determining how they will vote, followed by 25% who see national security issues that way. Fiscal issues are most important for 15%, while 12% cite domestic issues and seven percent (7%) cultural issues.

COMMENT:  Both parties are out of favor, which means Republicans cannot be content just to rest on President Obama's considerable failures. 

Among a list of other things, Republicans lack a unifying personality, a Reagan, to pull things together.  But Reagan was a unique individual with remarkable communications skills, and he'd been a two-term governor of our largest state.

Ah, for 1980.

October 24,  2009   Permalink

FRIDAY,  OCTOBER 23,  2009

A DEM DILEMMA - IDENTITY POLITICS GONE BAD - AT 6:28 P.M. ET:  We are days away from gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey.  The Republican has a solid lead in Virginia, the race is essentially tied in New Jersey.  The Democrats have a significant electoral problem in both races, as Fox News points out:

Voter doldrums - especially among blacks far less energized than they were for Barack Obama's historic presidential bid last year - pose problems for Democrats struggling in the governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey.

Pollsters and election analysts expect a steep drop-off of black voters - who historically back Democrats - in the nation's two gubernatorial contests and in congressional races Nov. 3, and they predict it is likely to cast a shadow in 2010 over at least 10 House Democrats with large black constituencies.

It is part of a broader trend of waning enthusiasm among Democratic voters as the country grapples with continued job losses, a mounting federal deficit and uncertainty about Mr. Obama's plan to restructure the health care system.

COMMENT:  In other words, the much-vaunted Democratic political operation in 2008 may turn out to have been a one-time thing, all centered on The One, the near-deity who has brought us all this change we can believe in. 

Apparently, many voters aren't convinced.

October 23,  2009   Permalink

 
FROM A DEMOCRAT? - AT 6:14 P.M. ET:  There are indeed moderate Democrats, and they won't shut up.  Maybe they'll be targeted next, like Fox News:

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Bart Setup (CD) told CNSNews.com yesterday that he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will vote to kill the health-care bill if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) does not allow a floor vote on his amendment to prohibit federal funds from going to insurance plans that cover abortion.

Under Stupak’s plan, the approximately 40 Democrats in his camp would join with all House Republicans in voting to defeat the special House “rule” that would set the terms for debating and amending the health-care bill on the House floor when it is brought up for a final vote. If a majority of the House does not first vote to approve this rule, the health-care bill itself cannot be brought to the floor.

COMMENT:  The moderates, or Blue Dogs, are the most frightened Democrats.  Most were elected from swing districts, and they can easily lose their seats next year, when the entire House is up for election.  The liberals and ultra-liberals are almost always from safe districts, and can follow the party line without penalty.

October 23,  2009   Permalink 

STUNNER - AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  It looked like a done deal, but, with Iran, nothing is done.  The mullahs have apparently turned down another generous offer from the West, once again showing the folly of trying to deal with the Tehran terrorists:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran declined Friday to endorse proposals by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to help reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium.

It said it was awaiting a "positive and constructive" response from world powers to its proposal on providing nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor producing medical isotopes, state television reported.

"Now we are awaiting a positive and constructive response on Iran's proposal from the other party on providing nuclear fuel for Tehran's reactor," TV quoted a member of Iran's negotiating team, who attended the Vienna meeting on October 21, as saying.

"The other party is expected to avoid past mistakes in violating agreements ... and to gain Iran's trust," the unnamed official said.

COMMENT:  The Iranians are playing for time.  They will have the bomb.  And they may use it - not necessarily by putting it on the tip of a missile, but by smuggling it into a target country, and setting it off, leaving no fingerprints. 

October 23, 2009   Permalink  

THE PEOPLE SPEAK, AND CONGRESS IGNORES THEM - AT 9:23 A.M. ET:  Byron York, in the Washington Examiner, points out that opinion polls are clear on the public's attitude toward health-care "reform," but that Congress is showing little interest in popular will:

...the American people simply do not share Obama's sense of urgency about health care reform. In a new poll, the Gallup organization asked the following question: "If Congress is going to reform the health care system, should Congress deal with health care reform on a gradual basis over several years, or should Congress try to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan this year?" Just 38 percent of those surveyed want reform now, versus a clear majority -- 58 percent -- who want reform on a gradual basis.

When you break Gallup's results down by political party, you see that Democrats are the only ones feeling any urgency at all. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats want reform now, but 77 percent of Republicans, and 63 percent of independents, want gradual reform. When it comes to health care reform, there is no fierce urgency of now.

The plain fact is, the public's top priority lies elsewhere. "The only issue that people have a sense of fierce urgency about right now is the economy and jobs," says Republican pollster David Winston. "The president is in an uphill battle to try to move the discussion to other topics."

COMMENT:  The arrogance of the administration, and its Democratic allies, is simply breathtaking.  They think that they know what's good for the American people, and that the people themselves don't.  This stems from a sense of superiority.  "We know since we are your betters."  I call it SATitis, a disease that's caused by overly high scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.  Very serious.  No cure in sight except practical experience.

October 23, 2009   Permalink  

MORE HEAT ON OBAMA - AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  And it's coming from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who earlier in the week also gently prodded his boss publicly over Obama's dithering on Afghanistan. 

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that NATO allies are moving toward sending more troops and civilian aid to Afghanistan.

Gates said he was ''heartened'' by allies' commitment to the 8-year-old war even as the Obama administration mulls whether to order tens of thousands more U.S. troops to the fight.

The Pentagon chief cited a long-term commitment by NATO partners to remain in Afghanistan until the conflict is successfully resolved.

COMMENT:  I get the feeling, but have no direct evidence to back it up, that Gates is preparing to leave the administration, and has nothing to lose by putting some pressure on the Hamlet-like Obama.  I can't imagine any secretary of defense being pleased with this amateurish student government president. 

If Gates does resign, there are rumors that he'll be replaced by one of Washington's great embarrassments, former Senator Chuck Hagel, a so-called Republican who all but endorsed Obama during the campaign.  Hagel is to national defense what swine flu is to humans.

October 23, 2009    Permalink  

QUICK, THERE GOES ANOTHER ONE UNDER THE BUS - AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  The Obama administration is learning the art of the purge, well practiced during its campaign for president.

Now, a Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia looks like he's next to go under the bus.  From the Washington Post:

Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election.

The greatest sin - not pledging full allegiance to Dear Leader. 

Senior administration officials have expressed frustration with how Democrat R. Creigh Deeds has handled his campaign for governor, refusing early offers of strategic advice and failing to reach out to several key constituencies that helped Obama win Virginia in 2008, they say.

Democratic strategists said that over the summer, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) offered Deeds advice on winning a statewide election. Among other things, Kaine, who is also chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told Deeds that he should lay out more of his own vision and stop attacking Republican Robert F. McDonnell so ferociously. But Deeds did not embrace the advice, according to a national Democratic strategist.

COMMENT:  No, it's all his fault.  It couldn't possibly be disillusionment with the Obama administration and the Democratic Party in general.  That would be impossible, for this administration is Divinely guided.  It's Creigh Deeds.  Under the bus isn't good enough for him.  Under a gas-guzzling SUV.  That's his fate!

These guys would have been great during the French Revolution.

October 23, 2009    Permalink  

BULLETIN - ENERGY CRISIS SOLVED! - AT 8:20 A.M. ET:  Well, that was close.  We thought the world was collapsing around us, but a simple piece of advice from a man known for his wisdom and learning has brought us back from the brink.  From London's Telegraph:

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has called on his countrymen to stop singing in the shower to help save water and electricity.

The left-wing leader said they should attempt to wash in less than three minutes, and breaking into song distracts them.

"Some people sing in the shower, in the shower half an hour. No kids, three minutes is more than enough. I've counted, three minutes, and I don't stink," he said during a televised Cabinet meeting.  Getting into his stride, he went on to label baths and jacuzzis anti-communist.

"If you are going to lie back, in the bath, with the soap and you turn on the what's it called, the Jacuzzi... imagine that, what kind of communism is that? We're not in times of Jacuzzi," he said, to laughter from his ministers.

COMMENT:  Okay, for those of you ready for your morning shower - three minutes.  We have ways of timing you here at Urgent Agenda, so don't try to get away with anything.

Make yourself part of the solution, not part of the problem.  Three minutes.  Al Gore will thank you.

October 23,  2009    Permalink