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DECEMBER 14,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:54 P.M. ET:

DEMOCRACY REPORT – From the Daily Caller:   "Adolf Hitler and Mickey Mouse signatures will be counted in the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, so long as they are properly dated and bear a Wisconsin address.  The Government Accountability Board reviewing the petitions unanimously approved a plan that would allow questionable names to be counted if they are signed within the circulation dates and have a proper address, WISN Milwaukee’s Channel 12 is reporting." 

I've always wanted to know Adolf's Wisconsin address.  I'll bet it's in the hills.

A FATAL BLOW – From The Hill:  "Actor Gary Busey is withdrawing his endorsement of Newt Gingrich for president.  'It is not time for me to be endorsing anyone at this time! When there are the two final candidates, then I will endorse,' Busey said Wednesday in a statement released through his representative.  Busey endorsed the former Speaker’s presidential campaign Saturday in an exclusive interview with The Hill." 

The first thing that Gary Busey must do when making his endorsement is to print cards telling people who he is.

BOOM-BOOM SURGE – There has been a surge in firearms sales for the holidays.  Gun dealers are having their best season in three years.  The FBI says background checks are up 32 percent over three years ago.  We saw this same phenomenon after Obama was elected, and may well reflect apprehension over social stability in the country.  It's reported that more women are buying guns than ever before.  Women are said to be particularly apprehensive about home invasions at night.

EGYPT VOTES AGAIN – From the Australian:   "Voters have poured into polling stations in the second round of landmark elections that will shape Egypt's post-revolution future, with many backing Islamists who have already emerged as front-runners.  Some 18.8 million people were eligible to vote in the second round of the three-phase legislative polls, the first since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February after 30 years in power.  The powerful Muslim Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) clinched the most seats in the opening round, was eager to sustain the momentum."

The first round occurred in Egypt's most "liberal" areas, and yet Islamists still won a landslide victory.  This new round is coming in a region where Islamists may be even stronger.  Despite attempts to whitewash the results by apologists like Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, we are in for a very hard ride in Egypt. 

December 14, 2011       Permalink

GUTS – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  I don't know what the punishment will be for this – execution is always on the table – but a moderate Democratic congressman has written an unprecedented blast at President Obama, summing up many of the grievances that have bubbled up as Barack Obama asks the American people to give him a second term.  From The Hill:

After observing President Obama for the last three years, it has become obvious to me that the president might prefer to be a university professor rather than do the job he holds today. While he might not realize that he feels this way, the evidence is very clear to those who work with or watch him closely...

...In the president’s first year in office, his administration suffered from what I call “idea disease.” Every week, and sometimes almost every day, the administration rolled out a new program for the country. There was no obvious prioritization and, after the rollout, very little effort to actually pass the latest idea/imperative/plan/edict.

When you hire amateurs, you get amateurism.

Early in his administration, President/Professor Obama repeatedly referred to “teaching moments.” He would admonish staff, members of Congress and the public, in speeches and in private, about what they could learn from him. Rather than the ideological or corrupt “I’m above the law” attitudes of some past administrations, President Obama projected an arrogant “I’m right, you’re wrong” demeanor that alienated many potential allies.

When the media presents you as a demigod, you start acting like one.

One former administration official told me directly that the people in the White House “NEVER TALK TO REAL PEOPLE.” Another former Obama staffer confided to me that it was clear to him that the president didn’t mind giving speeches (lectures), but really avoided personal contact with members of Congress and folks outside the Beltway.

One can almost imagine the president singing the tune from "Camelot," called "What Do the Simple Folk Do?"  He has no idea.

The president’s disinterest in input from those outside his inner circle is costing him many wasted opportunities. Recently, a senator told me Obama went to his/her state, but issued an invitation for the senator to attend the event only the day before. “I represent a must-win state and lead the president in approval ratings by nearly 20 points. He was totally off-message for what my people wanted to hear. Doesn’t the White House get it? I don’t need him, he needs ME!”

COMMENT:  I'm reminded of the famous story of the soldier who was seen crying at the gates of the White House just after the bulletin came that President Roosevelt had died.  A reporter asked the soldier, "Did you know him?" 

"No," the soldier replied, "but he knew me."  Roosevelt was a vastly greater master of politics than Obama will ever be, in part because millions of Americans felt he understood their problems.  Whether he actually did or not can be debated, but at least he knew the importance of giving the impression.  Obama seems to think he's above all that.

Oh, did I tell you that the congressman who wrote this piece has announced that he's not running for re-election?  I wonder why.

December 14, 2011       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  On the so-called "Arab spring," rapidly turning into a Mideast nightmare, from Arnaud de Borchgrave of The Washington Times: 

The Arab Spring was a western construct, based on the illusory hope of real democracy - hence, the Egyptian army high command’s determination to hang on to real power behind the scenes. It will resist any move that might provoke Israeli retaliation. But to placate Islamists, the army will be less accommodating with Israel on minor border issues.

Next door in Libya, the array of weapons and ammunition stashed in underground depots is staggering. And it would be nothing short of a miracle if al Qaeda’s supporters hadn’t absconded with some of what the new Libyan armed forces discovered in the Sokna and Al-Rawagha regions near the Niger and Chad borders: stockpiles of nerve and mustard gas. A plant was built with special barrels for the production of these agents with a capacity of 10,000 liters.

Scores of old Soviet SAM-7 anti-aircraft missile launchers as well as mortars and artillery pieces with shells were left unguarded for months.

New Libyan leaders from all walks of life are now feeling each other out to determine who might be best qualified to assess the country’s defense needs. They say they need another 100 days.

On the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea, Syria is, by all accounts, another Arab country in the throes of a civilian revolution against the army - not good news there, either. Salafists and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers were busy there, too.

COMMENT:  Well said.  The old Arab regimes were and are obnoxious.  But who is replacing them?  That's where the new nightmare begins.   The traditional Arab practice is "one man, one vote, one time."  Elsewhere in his column, de Borchgrave points out that both Mussolini and Hitler were elected.

We are heading for a tumultuous year in the Mideast.  It is a region of immense importance, in part because we get so much of our oil from Mideast sources.  Yet, the critical oil pipeline from Canada is being held up by environmental extremists, who have this administration in a lock grip.

Thanks, Barack.  Thanks for the hope 'n change.

December 14, 2011       Permalink

FOCUS ON SWING STATES – AT 8:32 A.M. ET:  Swing states are where presidential elections are won or lost.  They're the battleground states that can go either way, states like Ohio, Virginia and Florida.  A new poll of swing states shows trouble for Obama, but also shows that who the Republicans nominate will clearly have an effect on the result: 

The race for the White House will likely be decided in 12 battleground states - and President Obama has some serious work to do to keep his job, a new poll finds.

The President’s support in the key “purple” states has slipped 4 percentage points since 2008, according to a USA Today/Gallup survey.

Meanwhile, the number of registered Republicans in those same swing states have swelled by 5 points - giving GOP frontrunners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney leads over Obama.

In the dozen battleground states, Romney is ahead of the incumbent 48% - 43%, while Gingrich leads 48% - 45%, the poll found.

Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin are the 12 battleground states - and three years ago, Obama won all of them.

His margin of victory in the purple states, on average, was 8 percentage points. Now, after a Republican rise, party identification in the 12 states is basically even - and the GOP has a more well-informed and fired-up voting base, the poll found.

COMMENT:  Polls, as we always point out, are snapshots in time.  Reagan trailed in the polls during much of the 1980 race.  Obama still has a first-class political machine, and retains the support of much of the mainstream media.  Never count him out.

But virtually all recent polling shows intense dissatisfaction with the way the nation is going.  Obama gets a good part of the blame.  But remember, the Republican Party doesn't win any popularity contests, and the focus of Obama's political message will be to shift blame to the Republican-controlled house.  They're the ones.  Harry Truman did that effectively in 1948, running against the "Republican do-nothing Congress."  In fact, he was right.  And Obama is no Harry Truman.  But we are almost a year away from the election.  No one will even remember these polls.  They're just temporary guidelines.

December 14, 2011       Permalink

THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED – AT 8:06 A.M. ET:  There's no better example of the mixture of Washington power and big money than the investigation into the collapse of MF Global, the firm run by former Senator and Governor (of New Jersey) Jon Corzine.  Charles Gasparino, a financial columnist who plays it straight, gives us a taste of what is involved.  I urge you to follow this case, for your life savings can suddenly disappear inside one of these sleazy firms, which often present themselves as being as solid as Gibraltar: 

By playing the fool in two high-profile hearings, Jon Corzine so far has been able to deftly sidestep lawmakers’ questions about the now-infamous implosion of MF Global, including the disappearance of a whopping $1.2 billion in customer money that should have been kept safe in brokerage accounts. But new questions are about to arise.

Specifically: How did Corzine manage to convince regulators that a relatively small brokerage like MF Global was ready for big-time status, both as a risk-taking hedge fund and (even more startling) as a primary dealer of US government debt — a status that only a very few firms are allowed?

The likely explanation involves Corzine’s long experience at the nexus of politics and finance — as CEO of Goldman Sachs, then US senator and New Jersey governor, and of course as a leading Obama fund-raiser. In other words, crony capitalism.

Remember when the Democratic Party used to be the "working man's party."  We recently learned that Democratic strategists have now written off the white working class, and no longer consider it part of the Democratic base.

Corzine is to appear before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations tomorrow, and informed sources tell me the panel is keenly interested in how Corzine (who’d been out of the brokerage business for over a decade) managed to take this firm from nothing to something almost overnight — that is, before its spectacular demise last month.

COMMENT:  I'm not optimistic that the congressional investigations into MF Global will pin down much.  Wall Street protects itself, and sends vast sums to Washington in the form of campaign contributions.  It is simply incredible that no one has gone to prison for the financial manipulations that led to the 2008 crash, and no one probably will. 

We recently saw the phenomenon of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Ironically, it began well, by asking some pointed and overdue questions about crony capitalism.  Sadly, it quickly deteriorated into the usual left-wing, adolescent mess, the mascot of a few movie stars and trendy pols.  But the questions linger.  And they will eventually be asked by more competent sources.  Question:  Will the Republican Party, long the bastion of free enterprise, finally have the guts to stand up to the corruption on Wall Street?  If it does, most true conservatives and believers in free enterprise will cheer.  But I have my doubts.  You know what talks.

December 14,  2011     Permalink

DECEMBER 13,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:43 P.M. ET:

HOUSE PASSES TAX BREAK EXTENSION – The House passed and sent to the Senate a bill extending the tax break for Social Security taxes.  It also extended unemployment benefits, but at a reduced level, and it barred any cut in reimbursement to doctors for Medicare services.  But it also required construction of the Keystone pipeline from Canada.  Dems in the Senate promise to kill the bill, but that's far from a certainty.  Some moderate Democrats, especially from states that the pipeline will cross, may vote for the legislation because it will create some 20,000 jobs.

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM – Christiane Amanpour, whom I believe is one of the most overrated journalists of our time, is out as moderator of ABC's Sunday morning program, "This Week."  George Stephanopoulos, who had moderated the show for years, is back in.  Under Amanpour's inept guidance, ratings for "This Week" were in the basement, in part because Amanpour hasn't got a clue about American politics.  She will now go on to do some international reporting for ABC, and also do some work for her old employer, CNN, anchoring a show for CNN International, which is even to the left of CNN in the U.S.  Amanpour is not a reporter.  She's an editorial writer who poses as a reporter, and her views are entirely predictable. 

NTSB PROPOSES BAN ON USING CELL PHONES WHILE DRIVING – The National Transportation Safety Board, for which I've always had a very high regard, is proposing a ban on the use of cell phones while driving, except in an emergency.  I'd prefer to see this done on the state level, and enforcement can be difficult.  After all, an emergency would have to be defined.  On balance, though, I think it's a solid idea.  There is no "right" to drive.  It is a licensed activity, and states already impose reasonable restrictions in the interest of public safety.  Banning chit-chat, whether at highway speeds, or in heavy traffic, when you can easily hit a car ahead of you, seems reasonable to me. 

ANYONE NOTICE? – Talk about an underreported story.  It turns out that, last week, a federal court found the government of Iran liable for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.  Al Qaeda carried out the attacks, but the District Court for the District of Columbia concluded that the attacks would not have occurred without the direct assistance of Iran and Sudan.  If the court's conclusions are correct, we can only contemplate what actions Iran might take once it has a nuclear umbrella protecting it.  If you get a copy of the court's opinion, please send it to the White House.  Mark it "Christmas reading."

December 13,  2011     Permalink

THE ENDORSEMENT RACE – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Presidential candidates love endorsements.  I'm not sure the public cares, but a politician does.   The Hill is reporting on congressional endorsements on the Republican side.  It's a lopsided contest.

Mitt Romney is way ahead with 56 endorsements by lawmakers.   Rick Perry is second with 13 endorsements.  Newt Gingrich, currently the presumed frontrunner, is third with eight.  Of those eight, five are from fellow Georgians, leaving only three endorsements from outside Georgia. 

I cannot deny being troubled by this list.  Readers know that I have serious reservations about Newt, while agreeing with him on many things and impressed by his intellect.  But Newt Gingrich is a creature of Congress, and if all he can muster is three endorsements outside his home state...well, what can one say?

Newt is clearly preferable to what we have now, but I continue to wonder whether he can mount a credible presidential campaign.  I fear he'll be "Goldwatered" in the first few weeks.  The press today is even more biased than it was in 1964, when Goldwater ran.  Also, Newt, like Goldwater, is prone to provocative comments that blow up in his face.  One of the things that made Obama's run successful in 2008 was his campaign's tremendous self-discipline.  Self-discipline is not a term normally applied to Newt.

We have to win next year.  If we don't, this country will have four more years of the second coming of Jimmy Carter, squared.   The race appears to be between Romney and Gingrich, unless someone comes out of the blue.  But the blue seems awfully empty right now.

December 13, 2011       Permalink

ANOTHER UNIVERSITY OUTRAGE – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:  We report from time to time on the way in which political correctness – a means of advancing a party line – has come to grip our colleges, and a good part of our media.

We have another, outrageous example. 

There is a great deal of attention being paid these days to sexual misbehavior on college campuses.  At Penn State, at Syracuse, major athletic officials are accused of abusing young boys.  We make no judgment of guilt or innocence, but, clearly, the handling of charges against these powerful coaches by the universities involved was disturbingly inadequate.  An investigation is long overdue, and prosecutions will probably result. 

But other cases are surfacing, and some of them raise questions the other way – whether the accused are being sacrificed to the demands of trendiness.  At Columbia University, a young woman, a former student, has come forward to claim that a a professor sexually harassed her...in 2005.  There is no record of her having filed any complaint at the time, or even mentioning the alleged episode, but the professor's reputation is now permanently scarred.  From The Columbia Spectator:

A former graduate student has filed a lawsuit against Columbia University in which she accuses a Columbia professor of sexual harassment. According to court documents, the student is accusing SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs) Professor Joseph Paul Martin of demanding sex from the student in exchange for a passing grade in an independent study class she took in fall 2005: “instead of helping Plaintiff … with her course work, Defendant Martin repeatedly solicited Plaintiff … for sex.”

In her lawsuit, the former student claims that Martin insisted on sitting very close to her during meetings, and asked inappropriate questions about her personal relationships. He also allegedly explained that “Even if I am the professor and you are the student and there is a power difference, you would still be choosing if you wanted a good grade. This is the same as sex in exchange for your grade.”

The student claims she repeatedly tried to contact administrators in an attempt to get them to address the situation, but says they were uncooperative. Some of them, including former GSAS Dean Henry Pinkham and Assistant Dean Darice Birge, are named as co-defendants in the lawsuit.

According to the suit, the student rebuffed her professor’s advances, but he continued harassing the student and asking her inappropriate personal questions. At one point, Martin allegedly asked the student, who is black, whether she planned on having children while single, and made references to his belief that “black women typically have children out of wedlock.” At the end of the semester, Martin allegedly refused to give the student a grade and ultimately accused her of cheating in her independent study class.

The former student is seeking $1 million dollars in her lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court on Nov. 26. Martin is teaching several courses this spring, including Human Rights in Theory and Practice (HRTB BC1025), as well as two graduate colloquia in human rights.

COMMENT:  The suit is vague enough, and it's being directed at a university known for its sensitivity to this issue.  One of the deans named as a co-defendant is female.

What is outrageous is that the professor is now sullied, whether innocent or not, but the individual making the charge against him is kept anonymous.  This is a repeating pattern and is grossly unfair.  We saw it in the Duke University lacrosse case, where a false charge of rape was made against three lacrosse players, resulting in their suspension.  The charges were later shown to be bogus, and the district attorney who prosecuted them was disbarred for his actions.

I can understand anonymity in a sexual assault case.  There are very sensitive issues involved.  And even there, women testify in those cases in open court every day.  But anonymity in a low-level harassment case?  Sorry.  That is a standard that encourages false charges, although I make no judgment in this case.

The three boys in the Duke lacrosse case are tarred with that case for the rest of their lives.  Whenever their names are Googled, that will come up, despite their eventual exoneration.  Now Professor Martin will be tarred with the charge against him, but his accuser, even if rebuffed by the court, will remain anonymous. 

I am the father of two daughters, and I worry about sexual violence and harassment.  But there's got to be a better way to pursue these cases than what we're seeing at Columbia.

December 13, 2011       Permalink

CAVING ON IRAN – AT 8:27 A.M. ET:  Even the increasingly liberal Politico website has acknowledged what many observers are seeing – that the Obama administration is caving on Iran.

In recent weeks alone we've seen the pathetic efforts of the Obama administration to weaken sanctions against Iran proposed by Congress.  We've seen the downing of an ultra-secret American drone in Iran, and the utter refusal of the American president to destroy it on the ground to keep its secrets with us.  We've seen Leon Panetta, who is becoming Obama's lapdog, making a speech warning against the use of military force against Iran, essentially removing that deterrent to Iran's pursuit of a nuclear bomb.

From The Politico: 

Michael Makovsky and Blaise Misztal are the latest foreign policy observers to note a discernible shift in the administration's rhetoric on Iran's nuclear ambitions -- with language slowly drifting from 'unacceptability" to 'isolation.' They detect an underlying shift towards a policy of containment rather than confrontation:

[T]he administration’s lack of support for a military option undermines its commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran and undercuts its ability to achieve broader international support for sanctions. Despite repeated assertions that they are keeping “all options on the table,” officials seem to be conditioning Americans to view the prospect of a military strike negatively. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his predecessor, Robert Gates, have effectively ruled out U.S. military action by constantly highlighting its risks. Twice recently, Panetta emphasized a strike’s “unintended consequences.”...

...The administration’s alternative to prevention — isolation — implies containment. But a nuclear Iran could not be contained as the Soviet Union was. Containment requires credibility, a resource United States will have drained if, after numerous warnings to the contrary, we permit Tehran to cross the nuclear threshold.

William Galston reported in the New Republic that Israeli policymakers simply do not believe the administration's threats of military action. And Jeffrey Goldberg -- who has defended the administration's approach from critics in the past -- wrote last week that he's "beginning to have doubts about the Obama Administration approach to this issue."

COMMENT:  We are also starting to see the shape of Obama's second-term foreign policy, a full-throated embrace of Islamism and a turn toward unashamed appeasement.  The Arab spring is turning into a nightmare, but the administration, and its amen corner in the leftist press doesn't think so. 

Obama's pathetic request for the Iranians to return the drone they captured is a signal that we intend to speak softly and carry an increasingly small stick. 

We are in a great deal of trouble.  The only force that is truly strengthening under the foreign policy of this administration is Islamism, and we must wonder if this reflects the sympathies of the man in the White House.

December 13, 2011        Permalink

THE CRIME – AT 8:18 A.M. ET:  Occasionally, even the UN's Human Rights Council gets it right.  It doesn't happen often, but some crimes are so odious that even the UN must acknowledge them:

(Reuters) - More than 5,000 people have been killed in nine months of unrest in Syria, the U.N. human rights chief said, as an insurgency began to overshadow what had initially been street protests against President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule.

Navi Pillay reported the death toll to the U.N. Security Council as 1,000 higher than the previous toll just 10 days ago. It includes civilians, army defectors and those executed for refusing to shoot civilians, but not soldiers or security personnel killed by opposition forces, she said.

The Syrian government has said more than 1,100 members of the army, police and security services have been killed.

Syria's actions could constitute crimes against humanity, said Pillay, issuing a fresh call for the council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.

COMMENT:  Please note the silence of the American left.  When the US Army encountered a minor prison scandal at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the left went into hysterics.  We were monsters, war criminals, the worst people who'd ever lived.

But 5,000 Syrians?  Hey, who are we to question someone else's culture?  And, of course, Barack Obama was far more concerned by the governmental excess of American ally Hosni Mubarak in Egypt than by the American enemy living in Damascus, Syria. 

There have been some sanctions imposed on Syria, but without effect.  And there does not seem to be great interest in Washington, which is consumed by the economy. 

Syria is Iran's most important ally in the Arab world.  You'd think that would arouse our interest.  Snooze.

December 13,  2011     Permalink