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FEBRUARY 19,  2011

WORRIES IN THE GREAT PUMPER – AT 7:30 P.M. ET:  I was wondering when the media would get around to this.  Saudi Arabia is the Mideast's great pumper, the big enchilada, the name above the title.  And it's all because of the oil in the ground under the royal palace. 

I can't think of any other reason, can you?  I mean, we don't rush to our theaters to see Saudi movies.  Their new one,  "The Imam of Oz," did only so-so business.

But the Saudis are starting to shake over the revolts all around them.  And a shakin' Saudi is a thing to behold.  Given prices at the pump, we might take notice.  From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — As pro-democracy uprisings spread across the Middle East, the rulers of Saudi Arabia — the region’s great bulwark of religious and political conservatism — are feeling increasingly isolated and concerned that the United States may no longer be a reliable backer, officials and diplomats say.

Saudi Arabia is far less vulnerable to democracy movements than other countries in the region, thanks to its vast oil wealth, its powerful religious establishment and the popularity of its king.

But the country’s rulers were shaken by the forced departure of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, a close and valued ally. They are anxiously monitoring the continuing protests in neighboring Bahrain and in Yemen, with which Saudi Arabia shares a porous 1,100-mile border. Those concerns come on top of long-festering worries about the situation in Iraq, where the toppling of Saddam Hussein has empowered Iran, Saudi Arabia’s great rival and nemesis.

And...

The Saudis tend to see any threat to the established order in the region as a gain for their nemesis Iran, and its allies Syria and Hezbollah. They have grown increasingly worried that the Obama administration is drifting away from this perspective and supporting movements for change whose outcome cannot be guaranteed. Those worries were heightened by the crisis in Egypt, where the Saudis felt that Mr. Mubarak should have been allowed to stay on and make a more “dignified” exit, Saudi officials say.

King Abdullah had at least two phone conversations with President Obama to convey his concerns in the weeks before Mr. Mubarak’s ouster, and the last conversation ended in sharp disagreement, according to officials familiar with the calls.

I have no brief for the Saudis, their regime, or their historic support for Islamic extremism, but they're learning the hard way that Barack Obama has no friends, just temporary helpers.  There's a big bus parked outside the White House, fueled with Saudi petroleum, and old King Abdullah might soon find himself under it.  Your Majesty, meet Reverend Wright.  He's the guy under the rear axle.

the Saudis are closely watching American diplomatic gestures toward Bahrain. Any wavering of American support for Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, analysts say, would provoke a deep sense of betrayal, and could create an unprecedented rift in a partnership with the United States that has been a pillar of Saudi policy since 1945.

“Saudi Arabia has always had a fear of encirclement, whether with Communism or with Iranian influence,” said Rachel Bronson, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “Bahrain to me is the tipping point for when this becomes really unsettling.”

Stand by for betrayal.

February 19, 2011     Permalink

DOWN THE SAME TRAGIC PATH – AT 12:17 P.M. ET:  What is it about journalism?  Why is it that some of its "leading" practitioners never learn?  They make the same mistake over and over.  Or is it a mistake? 

When the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran in 1979, after the fall of the Shah, many journalists went crazy.  You'd the Beatles had landed in Tehran.   He was wonderful, he was the savior.  Andrew Young, who'd been Carter's UN ambassador, called him "a saint." 

And then the truth started coming out.  The saint was an ignorant fascist wallowing in the tenth century.  He created the Islamic Republic of Iran, which shoots its own citizens in the streets.

The New York Times today runs a laudatory piece about another religious hottie who, in following the script, has just made a triumphant return to Egypt to address the masses.

Oh, and what kind of a noble chap is he!  Hear him speak about democracy!  Hear him speak about multiculturalism!  Why, why, the man is the very model of a modern moderate mullah.

At least that's what the article implies:

CAIRO — Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Sunni cleric who is banned from the United States and Britain for supporting violence against Israel and American forces in Iraq, delivered his first public sermon here in 50 years on Friday, emerging as a powerful voice in the struggle to shape what kind of Egyptian state emerges from the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

And...

On Friday, he struck themes of democracy and pluralism, long hallmarks of his writing and preaching. He began his sermon by saying that he was discarding the customary opening “Oh Muslims,” in favor of “Oh Muslims and Copts,” referring to Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority. He praised Muslims and Christians for standing together in Egypt’s revolution and even lauded the Coptic Christian “martyrs” who once fought the Romans and Byzantines. “I invite you to bow down in prayer together,” he said.

And...

As the uprising here intensified in recent weeks, Sheik Qaradawi had used his platform to urge Egyptians to rise up against Mr. Mubarak. His son, Abdul-Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi, is an Egyptian poet who supported the revolution, and, though Sheik Qaradawi is considered a religious traditionalist, three of his daughters hold doctoral degrees, including one in nuclear physics.

Scholars who have studied his work say Sheik Qaradawi has long argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy.

COMMENT:  In fairness, the reporter does refer to some of this chap's shadier views, but the clear impression is that, on balance, he's an okay guy.  Set up the beers!

But this is the same man who publicly weighed the benefits and shortcomings of beating wives.  And he is the same man who expressed public, clear approval of Hitler's destruction of the Jews. 

You may be sure that certain journalists will now rush to embrace this guy, who will be pictured as the "moderate" voice of the Muslim Brotherhood.  His horrible views will be ignored or simply downplayed.  ("Ancient history," Jimmah Carter will probably say, as he said about the Hamas charter.) 

There is a teaching in Islam about the importance and acceptability of deception in advancing the cause.  Modern dictators, Hitler included, have known how to speak to different audiences.   Islamic extremists are learning the techniques.  The question is whether journalists will be sharp enough, or even interested enough, to expose the men behind the words.

February 19, 2011       Permalink

KEEPING PROMISES – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  It may only be a symbolic gesture, as Obama's veto pen is out and filled with ink, but Republicans in the House last night cut $60-billion from the federal budget. 

In a rare early morning weekend vote, the House approved an aggressive plan Saturday to eliminate dozens of federal programs and offices while slashing agency budgets by as much as 40 percent, drawing out more than $60 billion in deficit savings.

Setting up a showdown early next month with President Obama and Senate Democrats, House Republicans pushed the legislation through after a marathon debate capped off by an all-night session Friday that spilled into Saturday morning. During the bleary-eyed final roll call at 4:35 a.m., 235 Republicans were joined by no Democrats in support of dramatic spending reductions that they said were needed to address a soaring annual deficit of $1.6 trillion; 189 Democrats -- as well as three Republicans -- opposed it, accusing Republicans of writing the bill with a "double meat ax."

The three Republicans voting against the measure were Reps. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and John Campbell (Calif.).

Already this morning some reporters at CNN were spinning the action as a great threat to the Republic.  Apparently, we will all now starve, suffocate from bad air and die of strange diseases.

This is a first step in keeping the GOP promise to curtail the recklessness of federal spending.  Dems control the Senate, and they'll never go along.  Neither, as noted, will the liberal president. 

But there will be cuts.  They'll have to be negotiated in conference committees, but this budget, as submitted by the president, will not stand. 

I'm surprised Jeff Flake of Arizona voted against the GOP cuts.  He wants to run for the Senate from his state, and this will not help him with the party base.

February 19, 2011      Permalink

THE MIDEAST STILL BURNING – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  While "progressives" in the United States and Europe show a marked indifference, the Mideast is in flames.  Most stunning, perhaps, are the revolts in Libya:

CAIRO – Libyan special forces stormed a two-day-old protest encampment in the country's second largest city, clearing the area early Saturday, said witnesses, as a human rights group estimated 84 people have died in the harsh crackdown on days of demonstrations.

Internet was also cut around 2 a.m. removing one of the few ways of Libyans can get out information about the waves of anti-government protests in one of the most isolated and repressive nations in North Africa.

Contrast please the silence of the elites with their deep anguish and pain over the inappropriate humiliation of some Iraq prisoners in an American military prison in Iraq.  No one died, no one was even badly injured, but that outraged the delicate political palate of the effete left.  The hypocrisy is sickening.

Thousands of protesters are calling for the removal Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's leader for the past 42 years, mainly in the cities of the country's impoverished east. Their demonstrations have been brutally suppressed with a combination of armed militias and elite forces.

Oh, by the way, one of Gadhafi's African pals over the years has been Nelson Mandela.  (You remember him, the "great moral voice of Nelson Mandela," don't you?)  Now, Mandela has been a great man in some respects, and one must respect his years of imprisonment at the hands of the apartheid South African regime.  But his devotion to human rights is, at best, spotty, and his anti-Americanism is sickening.  Another worthy to watch is Desmond Tutu ("the great moral voice of Desmond Tutu"), the hypocritical Nobel peace laureate who seems a bit silent these days as people are gunned down in the streets of the Mideast.  Tutu spends much of his time bashing Israel.  Maybe he's just too exhausted to denounce the Arab dictators.

The beat goes on:

Protesters in Bahrain fought past riot policemen who sprayed them with tear gas and shot at them with rubber bullets Saturday, retaking a central square and leading the country’s crown prince to say he had ordered the army out of the area. The announcement set off a wave of jubilation among the thousands of protesters in Pearl Square, the heart of the country’s uprising, and added new pressures for shaken governments in Libya, Algeria and Yemen as they made new moves to stifle protests.

And...

In Yemen, about 1,000 protesters demanding the ouster of President Saleh gathered for another day in Sana, the capital, squaring off against pro-government demonstrators, who held posters of Mr. Saleh The pro-government group moved closer, and the two sides began hurling bottles, shoes and rocks at each other, even as some antigovernment protesters called out, “Be peaceful!”

The pro-government demonstrators fell back, but then a larger group returned, firing automatic weapons, at first into the air, and then at the antigovernment marchers. One man fell into the street and was carried away by other demonstrators, his chest covered in blood.

COMMENT:  Yemen is headquarters to what some American observers consider the most dangerous of the Al Qaeda franchises.  The government is often described by the mushy voices in the State Department as our "ally" in the war on terror.  Yeah, right.

February 19, 2011      Permalink

FEBRUARY 18,  2011

A STRANGE PLACE – AT 8:30 P.M. ET:  The UN, that is.  While the Mideast is burning, with government after government firing on its own people, the UN Security Council met in somber session today to take up the issue of...Israeli settlements.

We all know that Israelis who want to live in places their people have lived in for 6,000 years are at the root of every problem in the world.  We do know that, don't we?

So the Security Council met to consider a resolution introduced by Lebanon, whose government has been taken over by the terror group, Hezollah, condemning Israeli settlements.  The U.S. had offered, meekly, to support a "statement" criticizing the settlements, but the Palestinian "leadership" turned that down, insisting on a full-fledged resolution, which the U.S. promptly vetoed, properly asserting that it disrupts the peace process and contributes nothing.  All other Council members voted for the measure, a safe vote.

What is pathetic here is that the episode shows how useless the UN is.  It also shows the weakness of the Obama administration.  Any other recent administration would have been able to persuade the Palestinian nutjobs to accept a mild statement, considering the fact that these UN actions don't mean much anyway. 

One of the tragedies of the Palestinian Arabs is that they have been ruled by incompetent, corrupt and dishonest leaders who've been far more interested in useless gestures than in real progress.  They have a friend in the White House in Barack Hussein Obama Jr., but they certainly don't act as if they do.

At the same time, the UN today failed to show the slightest interest in the fires burning throughout the Mideast.  There's probably a good cocktail party scheduled for tonight.  Mustn't let history interfere.

February 18, 2011      Permalink

WISCONSIN BOILING – AT 8:16 P.M. ET:  Things are hopping in Wisconsin.  The public employee unions are revolting, in many ways, and Dem legislators have fled across state lines to avoid having to vote on critical issues involving the state's collapsing finances.  From Fox:

The fate of a contentious anti-union bill in Wisconsin was hanging in the balance Friday as Senate Republicans called in the state police to capture fugitive Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in protest, and who appear in no hurry to return.

Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach who is staying at a Chicago hotel, said that he and his 13 fellow Democrats could stay out of Wisconsin for days or even weeks. They have been missing from the Capitol for a day and a half.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker dispatched two state troopers to Democratic leader Mark Miller's home in Montana at the request of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Ted Blazel said troopers knocked on Miller's door and rang his doorbell, but no one answered.

The Wisconsin Constitution prohibits police from arresting state lawmakers while the Legislature is in session, except in cases of felonies, breaches of the peace or treason. Fitzgerald said he's not looking to have Miller arrested, but he wants to send a signal about the circumstances at the Capitol.

Jesse Jackson has rushed to Wisconsin to add his two cents.  Well, his half a cent.  There are rumors that Lenin will be arriving in Madison in a sealed train later tonight.  The University of Wisconsin faculty can't wait to greet him.

Thousands of teachers are calling in sick, closing schools in Milwaukee. 

Republicans charge that the Democratic National Committee is involved in organizing the public-employee-union protests.  President Obama has made clear his sympathies lie with the unions, prompting a sharp response from Governor Walker, who politely suggested that the president might mind his own business.

Walker, if he prevails, might come out of this a major national figure. 

Nancy Pelosi has declared herself on the side of the Wisconsin unions, although there's no evidence she's ever been there. 

We are watching developments carefully.  If the unions can succeed in shutting down Wisconsin, they might try it in other states.  This confrontation reminds some commentators of President Reagan firing the air traffic controllers when they went on strike soon after he took office.

February 18, 2011     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  From Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, quoting others on what it takes to win in politics:

The late Rep. Henry Hyde, he of the Hyde amendment, once said to me, "Politics is a game of addition." You start with your followers and bring in new ones, constantly broadening the circle to include people who started out elsewhere. You know the phrase Reagan Democrats? It exists because Reagan reached out to Democrats! He put out his hand to them and said, literally, "Come walk with me." He lauded Truman, JFK and Scoop Jackson. He argued in his first great political speech, in 1964, that the choice wasn't right or left, it was up or down.

That's what Mr. Daniels was saying. "We can search for villains on ideological grounds," but it's a waste of time. Compromise and flexibility are necessary, "purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers." We must work together. You've got to convince the other guy.

COMMENT:  That is so right.  Those who look for ideological purity are headed for defeat, especially in a presidential election.  Reagan was far from pure.  He reached out and appealed to Democrats.  Obama won by presenting himself as a centrist, although in his case he deceived us and should be defeated in 2012 on that basis alone.

But smart candidates understand they can't win with their base alone.  No one ever has.

America is an idealistic country, not an ideological one. 

Elections are about winning.  I am not interested in losing next year.  I don't want us to produce someone like Adlai Stevenson, who lost two presidential elections and basked in the applause of those who thought him right, but knew he had not one iota of power.

February 18, 2011       Permalink

ON WISCONSIN – AT 9:10 A.M. ET:  The People's Republic of Wisconsin is becoming a big story.  The Republican governor's austere budget plan, which will require public employees to give up collective bargaining rights, has brought on a firestorm of indignation, centered in the state capital of Madison.

Madison, of course, is Berkeley, without the good weather.  Teachers called in sick to protest the new budget plan.  State workers gathered at the capitol building, and there were the expected signs comparing the governor, Scott Walker, to Hitler.  Walker is not impressed.  From The Hill:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says his party has been emboldened by massive protests against his controversial budget plan.

Walker said demonstrators who filled the state Capitol building in Madison and the boycott by state Senate Democrats — some of whom fled the state in protest — have steeled the resolve of members of his party.

"If anything, I think it's made the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate stronger," he told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren in an interview Thursday night. "They're not going to be bullied. They're not going to be intimidated."

The unrest in Wisconsin has attracted attention from national lawmakers and political figures, who have incorporated the state's tussle over Walker's budget proposal into the debate over the federal government's fiscal woes.

Public-sector workers are upset with the plan, which calls on them to pay to receive pension and health benefits and removes collective bargaining rights for some.

President Obama has weighed in on the side of the public-service unions, which have been among his most loyal electoral supporters.

Walker is doing what Chris Christie is doing in New Jersey, and what other governors must do to save their states from fiscal insolvency.  In Illinois, of course, the fiscal problem has been addressed by a huge increase in taxes.  Why, look at all those businesses now rushing to Illinois. 

Governors are taking action.  At the same time, we point out that they must be careful.  Good budget cutting is done with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.  And it is simply wrong to demonize all public-service workers.  I've met very fine public employees, and some who weren't so fine.  We've all had wonderful public-school teachers, and some who shouldn't have been teaching at all. 

I have serious doubts about removing collective bargaining rights from public-empoloyee unions.  We, as a nation, are careful about withdrawing rights already won.  Both political parties have historically embraced collective bargaining.  The idea is to get concessions from public unions through tough negotiations, and the threat of layoffs if budgets aren't brought into line.

The request of Governor Walker that public employees pay a part of their pension and medical plans makes sense to me.  The payments would still be far below that paid by employees in private industry.

We must remember that public cheers today can easily turn to boos if services the public expects are suddenly cut off.  The truly obnoxious and gluttonous behavior of some public unions does not justify reckless or poorly thought out actions by budget-cutting elected officials.  A careful pattern of cuts, layoffs through retirement and reasonable givebacks by public employees will win out over chest thumping, which, I guarantee you, will wear thin.

As an example of good governance, look no further than Republican Mitch Daniels in Indiana, who has run his state superbly with quiet competence and a lowered voice.  He might be president, and probably deserves to be.

February 18, 2011       Permalink 

GOVERNMENT WINNING IN IRAN – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  While we can cheer democracy demonstrators (if that's what they are) throughout the Mideast, the most important challenge to government authority comes in Iran, a nation that's a clear threat to the peace of the region.

Sadly, the government of Iran seems to have the upper hand.  It is brutal, willing to kill its own people, and can count on a core support of fanatics:

(CNN) -- Thousands of people who attended a pro-government rally in Tehran on Friday condemned opposition leaders and called for their execution, a witness said.

The protesters in Revolution Square chanted "Death to Karrubi" and "Death to Moussavi" -- references to prominent opposition leaders Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi.

State television also showed crowds chanting "Death to America."

Hey, why not throw in the Great Satan?  The posters are already printed.  And note the vigorous reaction from the White House.  Zzzz.

It also showed some demonstrators holding up the picture of 26-year-old Sana Jaleh, who was shot and killed during protests in Iran on Monday.

Iranian authorities say he was a regime loyalist and member of the pro-government militia group -- the Basij -- who was shot by protesters. The opposition movement refutes the government's claims and says Jaleh was a pro-democracy activist. They say the government is attempting to hijack his death for propaganda.

Thousands of government opponents marched in Tehran on Monday. Government opponents and supporters also turned out Wednesday for Jaleh's funeral.

COMMENT:  The regime in Iran appears secure, at least for now.  There are certainly democracy heroes in Iran, but the willingness of the regime to murder its citizens keeps those heroes to a minimum.  Also, there is a certain lack of enthusiasm for Iranian democracy in Europe, which has many business deals with the mullahs.  And we know what talks, and what walks.

February 18, 2011       Permalink

MIDEAST SIZZLES – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  Violence appears to be increasing in Mideast nations, as democracy demonstrators are set upon by government forces.  From The New York Times:

The severity of a Libyan crackdown on a so-called “Day of Rage” began to emerge Friday when a human rights advocacy group said 24 people had been killed by gunfire and news reports said further clashes with security were feared at the funerals for the dead.

Both Britain and America have tried to whitewash the Libyan regime in recent years.  After all, there are oil deals to be made. 

And, please note if you will the silence of the left on what is happening in these Mideast dictatorships.  Not much interest.  The left has been brainwashed for years that the only important issue in the Mideast is the "national rights of the Palestinian people."  They can't see anything else because they can't see beyond a party line.

That apprehension also seized Bahrain where five people died in a brutal assault on a democracy camp in the capital, Manama on Thursday. The violence has pitted a Sunni minority government against a Shiite majority in the strategic island state that is home to the American Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

Thousands of Shiites gathered at a mosque in the windswept village of Sitra, south of Manama, on Friday for the funerals of two of the dead, chanting “The people want the fall of the government” before noon prayers.

In Yemen, for an eighth straight day, demonstrators for and against President Ali Abullah Saleh skirmished on the streets of the capital, Sana, until the president’s supporters routed their foes.

In Libya, defying threats of reprisals in several cities, thousands of protesters mounted one of the sharpest challenges to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s 40-year rule in a “Day of Rage” on Thursday modeled on the uprisings coursing through the region that have had toppled the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia and Egypt.

COMMENT:  There will also be a mass meeting of demonstrators in Egypt today, and they will be addressed by a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.  We'll follow that closely.

The United States appears to have absolutely no influence in anything happening in the Mideast right now.  That is, at least in part, the pathetic legacy of Barack Obama, whose greatest dream seems to be to limit American power.  He has succeeded in that.  At least he's succeeded in something.

February 18, 2011     Permalink