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JUNE 4,  2011

MAJOR CHANGE IN YEMEN – AT 11:37 P.M. ET:  Yemen is critical because it is home to one of the most important, and deadly, Al Qaeda groups.  The dictatorial leader of Yemen, a so-so friend of the U.S., was apparently wounded in a rebel attack, and has now left the country:

CAIRO — Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh transferred authority to his deputy Saturday and flew to Saudi Arabia, raising the prospect that a key U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaeda had lost his grip on power and left behind a nation tumbling into chaos.

Saleh’s decision to leave the country, apparently to seek medical treatment for injuries suffered in a rocket attack on his palace Friday, makes it unlikely that he will return, several analysts said. His sudden departure leaves behind a nation on the verge of civil war and economic collapse, with a violent power struggle among rival tribesmen underway and no clear plan for a transition of power if Saleh were to permanently surrender office.

For months, Saleh had resisted intense pressure from within Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest nation, and from neighboring countries and the United States to step down. With an active al-Qaeda branch in Yemen, ambitious enough to claim the mantle of Osama bin Laden in the near future, Saleh’s departure could pose one of the most significant policy challenges for the Obama administration in the months ahead.

COMMENT:  As either Laurel or Hardy (I can't recall which) used to say, "A fine mess."   We will be affected by the outcome, with the strong possibility that Al Qaeda will gain an even more secure base in Yemen from which to plan attacks on the United States.

June 4, 2011       Permalink

SYRIA ON THE BRINK – AT 11:37 A.M. ET:  The violence in the so-called "Arab Spring" isn't very springlike.  It's getting worse in Yemen and Syria.  Syria is one of the most important of the Arab countries, and Iran's major ally in the Arab world.  The brutality in Syria is unspeakable, yet our government only administers wrist slaps.  From Reuters:

Syrian forces killed at least 63 civilians in attacks to crush pro-democracy demonstrations on Friday, the Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah said on Saturday.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets after noon prayers on Friday in defiance of security forces determined to crush a revolt against President Bashar Assad's 11-year rule...

...It was one of the bloodiest days since the revolt broke out 11 weeks ago.

Security forces and snipers fired at tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city of Hama, where 29 years ago President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, crushed an armed Islamist revolt by killing up to 30,000 people and razing parts of the city to the ground.

COMMENT:  Great place Syria, ay?  Please note the deep concern of "human rights activists" in the West.  While Assad murders his own people, leftists from the U.S. and Europe are planning another flotilla to Gaza, where a second large shopping mall has just opened and the stores are stocked with food.

Hillary Clinton, in a weird statement, said that Bashar Assad has "almost" lost legitimacy.  Really?  I thought he'd lost it a long time ago. 

The chaos in Syria is increasing, as it is in Yemen.  We seem powerless to do anything in the Middle East, despite the fact that we have a president who assured us that, with his ascension to the throne, all would be well.  We are facing a critical time in a region of great importance to us.  You'd never know it from the relaxed attitudes in the White House.

You'd think that, by this time, Mr. Obama would have addressed the nation on the convulsions in the Mideast, but he apparently hasn't the patience to discuss things with the peasantry.

June 4, 2011      Permalink

A DATE TO REMEMBER – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  On this date in 1944, Allied troops liberated Rome, the first of the Axis capitals to fall. 

The liberation of Rome is often forgotten because, only two days later, D-Day, Allied troops landed in Normandy, overshadowing Rome.  But the Italian campaign was one of the most bitter of World War II.  Ernie Pyle, the great war correspondent, who was closer to the troops than perhaps any other reporter, wrote some of his best copy during the Italian fighting.  His dispatch, "The Death of Captain Waskow," should be read by every American schoolkid for what it tells us about the bond of men in battle, about leadership, and about the ultimate cost of war:

AT THE FRONT LINES IN ITALY, January 10, 1944 - In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas.

Capt. Waskow was a company commander in the 36th Division. He had led his company since long before it left the States. He was very young, only in his middle twenties, but he carried in him a sincerity and gentleness that made people want to be guided by him.

"After my own father, he came next," a sergeant told me.

"He always looked after us," a soldier said. "He'd go to bat for us every time."

"I've never knowed him to do anything unfair," another one said.

I was at the foot of the mule trail the night they brought Capt. Waskow's body down. The moon was nearly full at the time, and you could see far up the trail, and even part way across the valley below. Soldiers made shadows in the moonlight as they walked.

Read the rest.  It's here.  You won't regret it. 

There are, undoubtedly, many other Captain Waskows today, but we don't know them, do we?  Today our military is a separate class, kept distant from the elites and chatterers who define our popular culture.  But the Waskows are out there, taking care of their men, and women.  And we will find a way to thank them.

I wish we had another Ernie Pyle today as well, but we don't. 

June 4, 2011       Permalink

SMART – AT 10:24 A.M. ET:  Elections are about winning.  In politics there is no prize for second place.  You don't get to be first runner up, ready to take over should the winner not be able to serve. 

So I was glad to see some leading, and respected, Republicans give some sound advice yesterday on the need to avoid ideological purity tests for presidential candidates.  From Fox:

Leading Republican politicians warned fiscally conservative and religiously devout voters Friday not to impose "purity" tests on candidates seeking the party's 2012 presidential nomination.

"In politics, purity is the enemy of victory," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told an audience of approximately 400 attendees at the first annual Faith and Freedom Coalition conference at the Renaissance Downtown Hotel in Washington. "We can't expect our [presidential] candidate to be pure. Winning is about unity, not purity."

Barbour's friendly but stern admonition carries weight because even though he opted, after much deliberation, not to run for the presidency, he is still widely regarded as one of the party's savviest strategists and most prodigious fundraisers. He spoke as the GOP presidential field continues to settle, with aspirants each week announcing either their intention to join the contest to unseat President Obama, or to watch it from the sidelines or seek lower office.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, obliquely addressing the Tea Party voters who have sometimes exalted their own candidates over those selected by the GOP establishment, echoed Barbour's call to unity. "The Republican Party is not in competition with the conservative movement," Priebus said with an almost plaintive tone. "The Republican Party is part of the conservative movement."

COMMENT:  That is good advice.  Each party has its share of rigid ideologues who'd rather see the other side win than concede one minor point of their precious ideology.  Hubert Humphrey and the Democrats lost the presidency in 1968 because leftist ideologues within their party stayed home on election day, rather than vote for Humphrey, who'd served as vice president under Lyndon Johnson, whom they loathed.  A good lesson there.

Obviously, avoiding ideological purity tests doesn't mean abandoning ideals or strongly held positions.  It just means that reasonable flexibility is necessary to hold a political party together.  In politics it's much better to have 75% of something, than 100% of nothing.  Right now, in the presidency, Republicans have 100% of nothing.

We hope the lessons of Barbour and Priebus are taken to heart.

June 4, 2011     Permalink

JUNE 3,  2011

WE DON'T STAND BY OUR STORY – AT 11:12 P.M. ET:   Ah, it took only one day for the new New York Times executive editor to create a bit of an unwanted swirl.  You may remember, in our last episode, that the anointed Jill Abramson said that in her house, while growing up, The Times substituted for religion.  She also said that The Times was considered the absolute truth.

Well, as Red Buttons used to sing, strange things are happening.  Those quotes mysteriously disappeared from The Times yesterday afternoon.  The Politico reports: 

The web is abuzz after a quote from the New York Times’s future executive editor, Jill Abramson, in a Times news story on her appointment was missing in an updated version of the piece.

Abramson was quoted by Jeremy Peters on Thursday as saying “In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion. If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth.” In later versions published online, the quote had been removed. A spokeswoman for the Times said the quote was removed for “space” and after new quotes were added to the story.

Yeah, I'll bet.

POLITICO used the quote in a news story on Thursday as did Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto. Blogger Ann Althouse notes that all the publications that linked to the story, and used the quote, were in left in a bind -- having excerpted a quote from a story that no longer contained it.

Of the quote’s removal, National Review’s Jay Nordlinger wrote late Thursday: “That’s a tiny bit strange, isn’t it? I mean, Abramson’s words were not exactly scrubbable, or scrub-worthy.” In a follow-up, Taranto wrote that the editing process was the likely culprit for the quote’s removal, but added: “It's obvious that an editorial decision was made to ‘rectify’ a quote that made the Times look foolish.”

And it did indeed make The Times look foolish, not the best outing for its new highest-ranking news official.  Those quotes symbolize, to many, what is so fundamentally wrong with the paper today – the arrogance, the belief that it is somehow lofty and above us all, the sneering at religion. 

The Times will not improve until its current publisher, who hired Abramson, departs.  Many believe it will not improve, if it improves at all, until the paper is sold to outside interests, eliminating control by the current ruling family.  In the meantime, we will have to endure the silliness.

June 3, 2011      Permalink

WHEN YOU MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  Politics is a most unforgiving sport.   You may be allowed one mistake.  But make it again and the customers start to leave.

I have great respect for Rudy Giuliani.  He was a fine mayor of New York who did the one great thing needed to save the city – he took on serious crime and largely defeated it, showing that it could be done.

But Rudy made a mess of his presidential run in 2008, getting into the race much too late and never connecting with voters, despite his legendary reputation as the man who led New York through 9-11.  Now he seems to be making the same mistake.  From The Politico:

After spending the day in New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani says he has settled on a timeframe for making up his mind about entering the 2012 race.

Late summer “seems like a natural period of time,” the former New York City mayor said in an interview with POLITICO from New Hampshire. “I think during the summer people don’t pay as much attention.”

No, no, no, that's much too late.  If Rudy wants to run, he's got to get in within the next month, and start introducing himself once more to the American people.  His name doesn't have the impact it once did.  His contributions are a vague memory.  If he is to have any chance, he has to campaign long and hard.  This is bad strategy again.

“I have the advantage of very high name-recognition,” he added, explaining his decision to wait.

Rudy, your name recognition was higher in 2008.  Look at the good it did you.

Waiting until Labor Day would also Giuliani time to see how the field shakes out, including the effect from the heavily-watched Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, generally seen as the first major test of organizational strength.

Despite being the national frontrunner and leading fundraiser of 2008, Giuliani placed fourth in the 2008 New Hampshire primary. Looking back, he said he regretted not doing the right type of retail politicking the last time around, but argued that the “Live Free or Die” state — where independents are the largest group of voters and can cast ballots in party primaries — is a natural fit for him.

Then why did he place fourth?  He's not thinking presidential.  He's thinking mayoral.

I think Rudy is once again underestimating the challenge.  He seemed stunned when he did so poorly in 2008, in part because of a weak campaign, and in part because his personality often seemed more suited to local, rather than national office.

As Yogi Berra so eloquently put it, it's déjà vu all over again. 

June 3, 2011     Permalink

LIBYAN BREAKTHROUGH? – AT 9:13 A.M. ET:  One of the great questions during the "Arab Spring" is, who are the revolutionaries?  Are they true freedom fighters, or will they make matters worse?  Will we have, say, in Egypt, another Iran? 

We know that Egypt isn't going well.  Radical Islamists are rising in power, while the moderates and modernists who sparked the revolution are still trying to organize.  Egypt, the most important Arab country, seems to be moving closer to Iran, a frightening development.

But there is a story out today that gives guarded hope for the Libyan revolution.  We cannot confirm this story.  But, if true, and if the rebel forces described actually take power, we can have a major pro-Western advance in Libya.  But read with caution.  From AFP:

JERUSALEM (AFP) – French writer Bernard Henri Levy said he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel's premier saying they would seek diplomatic ties with Israel if they came to power.

Levy told AFP he passed on the verbal message from Libya's National Transitional Council during a 90-minute meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

"The main point was that the future Libyan regime would be moderate and anti-terrorist and will be concerned with justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel," Levy said.

"The future regime will maintain normal relations with other democratic countries, including Israel," he added.
Levy, who helped engineer France's recognition of Libya's fledgling rebel authority, visited the rebel-held Libyan city of Misrata last weekend.

He said on Thursday that Netanyahu "did not appear surprised" at the content of the Libyan message.

COMMENT:  In a story like this, it's fair to see Israel as a symbol of Western democracies.  If the rebels will seek normal relations with Israel, it's logical to assume that they would seek normal relations with us, a dramatic improvement from the Gadaffi days.

Again, no confirmation.  But, as the story points out, Levy has served as an intermediary between the Libyan rebels and France, and is apparently trusted by both.  This could be a major development.

June 3, 2011       Permalink

ANOTHER ECONOMIC SETBACK – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  The government jobs report issued a few minutes ago confirms the gloomy stories reported earlier in the week.  From The New York Times:

After several months of strong job growth, hiring slowed sharply in May, raising concerns once again about the underlying strength of the economic recovery.

The Labor Department reported on Friday that the United States added 54,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, following an increase of 232,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent from 9.0 percent in April.

While any job gains at all are welcome, the pace of job growth thus far has been too slow to reverse much of the damage wrought by the Great Recession, which has left more than 13 million unemployed workers in its wake. For the last few months economists had been predicting that the economy was finally gathering steam and that a sharper bounce-back was imminent, only to be disappointed again and again.

COMMENT:  The economy is in trouble, and the president is in trouble.  Often, in circumstances like this, the federal government starts spending a lot of money, hoping to "prime the pump," to get the economy moving again.  But there is no money.  We are deeply in debt.

Has the U.S. run out of options?  Will this mess become the new normal, with years of unemployment and underemployment ahead of us? 

I can't claim to know the answers, but I do know this:  Look around the world.  The countries that grow are the countries that make things, that create things.  But manufacturing in America has become almost a backwater.  I'm not sure we can revive unless we dramatically reverse that trend. 

But I've seen precious little interest in a revival of American muscle in the Obama administration.  They are obsessed with dubious, and unproved, environmental schemes and a piling on of regulations.

Our situation goes beyond partisanship.  We are in serious trouble, and we're not getting out of it.  The opportunities for the Republican Party to regain control and contribute to economic growth are vast...with the right candidate and program.  That means an innovative, creative economic policy, free of crony capitalism and Wall Street cover-ups, where Main Street counts and factories hum. 

June 3, 2011       Permalink

DOWNFALL – AT 8:13 A.M. ET:  Both ABC and CNN are reporting that John Edwards will be indicted on criminal charges today.  From ABC:

Unless a last-minute deal comes through, John Edwards will be indicted today on criminal charges after a two-year investigation seeking to connect the former senator to an allegedly illegal scheme to cover-up his extra-marital affair, ABC News has learned.

The case against Edwards, which called on more than 100 witnesses, will seek to prove that hundreds of thousands of dollars were allegedly used illegally to seclude and support his mistress Rielle Hunter, so Edwards could continue his campaign for the presidency in 2008.

Criminal charges are likely to be filed today against Edwards, unless a last minute deal is reached. His attorney Greg Craig arrived in North Carolina last night to consult with Edwards.

The federal investigation of Edwards began a few months after the National Enquirer had cornered him at a Beverly Hills hotel in October 2007. The supermarket tabloid began to run a series of stories alleging that an adulterous affair occurred between Edwards and Hunter, his former campaign worker.

COMMENT:  ABC is to be commended for acknowledging the work of the National Enquirer.  But isn't it remarkable that it took a supermarket tabloid to bring down a presidential candidate?

The Edwards case is a stunning example of the double standards in the media.  The same media that could send reporters to Alaska to rummage through Sarah Palin's garbage asked no serious questions about John Edwards, an avowed liberal, and John Kerry's running mate in 2004.  Edwards had made millions as a trial lawyer specializing in medical malpractice cases.  Now, there certainly are legitimate malpractice cases.  But Edwards had allegedly gotten rich by using junk science to destroy physicians, but the press never pursued any meaningful investigations.  Had Edwards been a conservative Republican, I doubt if he could have ever gotten away so unscathed.

It finally took a supermarket tabloid to expose this man.  The New York Times was busy trying to pin a romantic affair on John McCain, and other outlets made destroying George Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin their life's work.  Meanwhile, Edwards remained a major national figure. 

What if Edwards had made it to the White House?  Fortunately, he didn't.  But another man, about whom few serious questions were asked, did.  America is today paying the price for the scandalous press bias in favor of Barack Obama in 2008.  The media never learned its lesson.  It never learned because it doesn't want to learn.  It is in the bias business, the business of "making a difference," and it has no interest in changing.

June 3, 2011     Permalink