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We are experiencing technical problems with our Facebook page.  We've now learned that these problems are across the internet.  Facebook introduced technical changes last night, and with those changes came some serious bugs that are affecting the ability of many websites, including our own, to place posts on a Facebook page.  We're assured that Facebook is working on the problem.  I don't know if the guy portrayed in the film, "The Social Network," about the birth of Facebook, is involved in fixing this.  If he is, and messes up, he should give back the movie money. 

MARCH 9,  2011

NATIONAL PUBLIC RIDICULOUSNESS – AT 7:40 P.M. ET:  Vivian Schiller, CEO of National Public Radio, has resigned.  The resignation, which many sources say was encouraged by NPR's board, comes a day after a secretly made tape was released on which a high NPR official, now himself resigned, made disparaging remarks about Republicans, Tea Party members, and, obliquely, Jews. 

And this comes only months after Juan Williams was fired from NPR on the basis of trumped-up charges of violating NPR's rules.  The real reason was that he appears on Fox.  And I suspect that there was annoyance that Williams, an African-American, doesn't parrot the liberal line. 

NPR and its partner in crime, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, are facing a public-relations crisis just as their funding is being considered in Congress.  Republicans are determined to defund these budget drainers.

When public television first got started, almost half a century ago, we only had three major television networks.  An argument could be made for an "educational" TV system that couldn't raise funds through advertising, and which broadcast "high-quality" programs.

Today, though, with cable and satellite systems in abundance, not to mention DVDs available in our mailboxes through Netflix, the argument for public subsidies of broadcast operations seems pretty weak.  Shows like "Sesame Street" can easily find corporate backing.  As for National Public Radio, I can't see why they should not have to compete in the marketplace of ideas, like everyone else.  They put on some pretty good programs, and, if enough listeners agree, funds can be found.

I say defund over a period of five years to give these institutions time to adjust.  Their leftist bias has alienated them from millions of Americans.  They have lost our confidence and respect.  And with all that's available to us, their programming is no longer that special.

March 9, 2011      Permalink 

TRAGEDY IN LIBYA – AT 7:16 P.M. ET:  While our dynamic president contemplates the philosophical nature of the world situation, and consults various authorities, Libya is becoming a bloody mess.  The government forces are striking back, and the battle now seems to be tipping in their favor.

RAS LANUF, Libya — Forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, attacked rebel fighters on the outskirts of this strategic refinery town, provoking a response that included the firing of missile fusillades and rocket propelled grenades, in perhapsthe fiercest engagement yet between the budding opposition army and the government during the three-week old conflict.

Backed by their heavy weaponry the rebels managed to advance on foot for a couple of miles to the west, witnesses said, until they were frozen by mortar fire and heavy machine guns and forced to retreat in trucks. At least five soldiers died in the fighting.

In the western half of the country, elite government troops continued to pound the besieged, rebel-held city of Zawiyah , only 30 miles from Colonel Qaddafi’s stronghold, the capital city of Tripoli.

Across the country from each other, in fights of vastly different complexions, Ras Lanuf and Zawiyah have become proving grounds in Libya’s emerging civil war. In the east, on a battlefield of desert, dunes and scrub, the rebel force has matured and, improbably, retained control of the town for more than week. But under steady bombardment by government jets and kept at bay by superior artillery, the rebels have not been able to advance towards Tripoli, the colonel’s stronghold.

A broadcast report said that all the talk about outside nations imposing a no-fly zone has actually given impetus to the Qaddafi loyalists.  They want to get in as much aerial bombing as possible before such a zone is established, if it ever is.

We look awfully weak right now, and other nations in the Mideast are undoubtedly noticing.  Obama has demanded that Qaddafi leave office, but has done absolutely nothing to back up the demand.  NATO is going to meet on the Libyan crisis.  However, it's widely believed that NATO will take no action without UN approval, and UN approval is virtually impossible to get, as China and Russia would oppose any Security Council resolution.

As Oliver Hardy of Laurel & Hardy used to say, this is a fine mess.

March 9, 2011      Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 9:43 A.M. ET:  According to Gallup, President Obama is slipping in the polls again.  From Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket blog:

According to the latest Gallup numbers, Obama's weekly job approval number was 46% through Sunday.

That's the lowest it's been since mid-December, when Republican "hostage-takers" forced the
Democrat to accept an extension of the Bush tax cuts that Obama now sees as a positive sign of bipartisan cooperation, not to mention job growth.

The current approval is even lower than the 47% Obama had after his murky State of the Union address that atypically provided no noticeable poll bounce.

He had been up at the 50% level into January, his first time up there since May. But then slid again to hover around 48% until the newest decline.

And...

79% of Democrats approve of Obama's job now. However, that's down from 84% in late January. His approval among independents dipped from 47% to 43%.

The Democrat's approval among Republicans, which couldn't conceivably get any worse, did anyway: Down another notch from 15% to 14%.

COMMENT:  Caution:  These are not terrible figures and we shouldn't be popping the corks just yet.  Still, an approval number of 43% among independents is nothing for the White House to brag about.

One of the things that's hard to measure in these polls is the issue of enthusiasm, or electricity.  Obama was elected in 2008 in part because his base was sizzling hot for him.  This was "the man."  Not since Republicans embraced Ronald Reagan has a base been as solidly behind a candidate.

That electricity has lost some voltage.  If it gets any worse, Obama may be running on the amount of juice used to power a smoke detector.  Some Dems have lost faith in him, as noted in the post just below.  The nation as a whole no longer sees him as unique.  His racial "first" is, by now, ancient history.  I would suspect that much of his "approval" number is soft approval. 

But Republicans haven't named their candidate.  Even if Obama's approval stays below 50%, he can still win, if the GOP nominates a clunker.  I recall the 1964 election, when President Lyndon Johnson won a landslide victory, even though it was hard to find anyone who liked Johnson.  But he was running against Barry Goldwater, who scared people.  The Dems convinced America that Barry would launch the missiles, and that did much to give Johnson a solid victory. 

And recall that Nixon, never loved, sometimes loathed, won two presidential elections, the second against George McGovern, who also scared people.  Just as Americans thought Barry would launch the missiles, Americans believed George would scrap the missiles.  Just as scary.

The GOP's choice of candidate will determine who wins the election.  The field is plentiful but not deep, respectable but not loved.  We need passion in a party that regards passion as sinful. 

March 9, 2011       Permalink

EVEN THE DEMS ARE WHISPERING – AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  About President Obama's lack of leadership.  From the first day, Obama never seemed to like the job.  He just wanted to have it.  Good food.  Great concerts at the White House.  Terrific private jet.  But the work load.  Jeez, who needs that?

Now even Democrats are starting to buzz about Mr. Obama's indifference, even on budget matters.  From the Washington Examiner:

With no real compromise in sight on a 2011 budget, lawmakers are growing frustrated with President Obama, saying he failed to take a leadership role to help resolve the months-long fiscal stalemate.

"The president ought to play a much greater role," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., following a closed-door meeting of the Democratic caucus Tuesday that centered on the budget. "I think the president doesn't want to be engaged in this kind of fight, and it's not right. He has to step up."

Involved?  Is that in the Constitution?  Where does it say "involved"?

The Senate was scheduled to hold test votes by early Wednesday on two competing measures that would fund the remaining seven months of the fiscal year, but neither bill was expected to garner the 60 votes needed to pass.

"It's back to the negotiating table," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

Feinstein isn't the only one complaining:

Feinstein's comments followed a floor speech by freshman Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, in which Manchin questioned the wisdom of holding votes on the two doomed spending proposals and who criticized President Obama's lack of involvement in the budget standoff.

"Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations -- our president -- has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for?" asked Manchin, who is up for re-election in 2012 and is considered politically vulnerable.

Remember that two years ago Obama was being presented to the American people as a demigod, who would solve all our problems with a wave of the hand.  Now he won't even wave the hand.  A wink, maybe.  But no hand.

And get this:

Obama last week tapped Vice President Biden to head bipartisan budget talks. Biden showed up in the Senate for an hourlong meeting and then departed for a weeklong overseas trip.

"I don't know of anything that came out of Biden's visit," Feinstein said.

Another frustrated Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, said his party is not even discussing a compromise plan.

"There was no discussion about a path [to compromise] and I'm not sure there is a path," Nelson said.

COMMENT:  The bloom is definitely off Obama's rose.  Add to this his failure to lead during the revolts in the Mideast, his offhand treatment of the Australian prime minister when she visited earlier this week, and we have a picture of a president whose record may have as many blank spots as his life story.

But don't despair, Barack.  Katie Couric will save you in 2012.

March 9, 2011      Permalink

AND NOW THE REAL PROBLEMS BEGIN – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  Many reporters covering the Egyptian revolt, especially the worthies from The New York Times, acted as if the whole thing were a high-school musical.  Hey, look at those common folk out there.  Let's have a song.

Then we learned of the horrific attack on CBS correspondent Lara Logan, beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob of protesters who surrounded her yelling "Jew, Jew, Jew!"  (She is not Jewish.)  Of course, that story faded rather quickly.

Now, another horrible incident in the "new" Egypt.  I guess Christian pilgrims won't be traveling to Egypt anytime soon.  From Reuters, via The Jerusalem Post: 

CAIRO - Thirteen people were killed in violence between Christians and Muslims in Cairo
on Tuesday night, the state news agency reported on Wednesday.

The agency quoted a senior health ministry official as saying 110 people were wounded in the violence.

The violence was triggered by a Christian protest over an arson attack on a church in Helwan south of Cairo.

Christians protesting over the attack on the church had blocked a main highway south of Cairo and violence started after Muslims who wanted to pass through clashed with the protesters, a security source said.

Petrol bombs and rocks were thrown. At least one of the dead Christians had been struck in the back by a bullet, but it was unclear who had fired it. The army had fired into the air to disperse protesters.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million.

Tensions between the communities which appeared to evaporate during the mass uprising against President Hosni Mubarak have resurfaced in recent days, posing a challenge for the country's interim military rulers.

COMMENT:  Let's see how much coverage this will get in the mainstream media.  Do you think NPR will cover it in depth?  We wait for some career-minded reporter to find a link between Coptic Christians and the Tea Party.  Don't laugh.

March 9, 2011      Permalink

INCREDIBLE – AT 7:57 A.M. ET:  Brought to you first this morning as still another reminder of the vast corruption at the UN.  From Fox:

A watchdog group is asking the U.N. to immediately remove a Libyan envoy from her post as an investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries, saying that as a mouthpiece for a regime that’s “deploying hired guns to massacre its own people” it's “outrageous” to have her in that position.

Najat Al-Hajjaji has been one of five members of “The Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of peoples to self-determination” since its inception in 2005.

Among other things, the group was established to monitor mercenaries and mercenary-related activities around the world, study their impact on human rights, create proposals to further the protection of human rights against threats posed by mercenaries and draft international principles to encourage respect for human rights by companies offering mercenary services, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights website.

But U.N. Watch, an organization that monitors the performance of the United Nations, says Al-Hajjaji should be the “last person” charged with any of those duties – especially now.

“At a time when [Libyan leader Muammar] Qaddafi is using mercenaries to kill his own people, it is outrageous that one of his long-time representatives would sit on the world’s highest human rights body as a supposed defender of human rights -- and, of all things, as a defender of victims of mercenaries,” U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told FoxNews.com.

COMMENT:  And yet, we were recently lectured to by our UN ambassador, Susan Rice, about how much the United States needs the UN.  And we're told that President Barack (just call me Jimmah) Obama is reluctant to take any action without UN approval. 

It's bad enough to have the insane run loose.  To put our future in their hands makes us just as insane.

March 9,  2011     Permalink

MARCH 8,  2011

THE MYTH CONTINUES – AT 9:16 P.M. ET:  One of liberalism's enduring myths is that you can improve education simply by throwing money at it.  The myth is mightily assisted by the reality that, when you toss cash at the education establishment, you help powerful organizations, like the teachers' unions, that in turn support the cash tossers in the Democratic Party.  It's a warm, cuddly arrangement.   Now, surprise, President Obama defends the continuing federal ATM.  From the Washington Times:

Saying the country’s competitiveness was tied directly to the quality of its schools, President Obama on Tuesday said there was “nothing responsible” about cutting federal education spending even as lawmakers on Capitol Hill look to trim a ballooning federal deficit.

During a visit to Massachusetts' TechBoston Academy, Mr. Obama held up the pilot school as a national example of how targeted investments and local flexibility can dramatically improve student performance. The academy, housed in what was once a failing high school, has produced student test scores that have soared since its founding in 2002 with help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mr. Obama’s remarks put him right back in the center of the spending fight in Washington, where he has tried to put education money off-limits from cuts even while promising to get spending under control.

“We cannot cut back on the very investments that will help our economy grow and our nation to compete,” Mr. Obama said after a tour of the school with Mrs. Gates, wife of Microsoft Corp. founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. “There’s nothing responsible about that. There’s nothing responsible about cutting back in our investment in these young people.”

COMMENT:  It's the same old game.  They find one school that works and make it symbolic of "investment" in education. 

The fact is that we invest vastly in education, but don't get anywhere near the return we should.  And we refuse to face basic issues in education – like the refusal of many parents to do their jobs in motivating their children, and the mediocrity of many of our teachers' colleges.  And, of course, none dare mention political correctness, and what it has done to our educational system.

The education establishment isn't shortchanged, it's bloated.  Do we need to "invest" in education?  Of course.  But we need to do it wisely.

As a citizen, I watched, in the 1960s, as the New York City school system, the greatest urban school system in the United States, was destroyed before our eyes – by changes in population, social theories, racial tensions, and a refusal to face reality.  And, naturally, the very people who swung the wrecking ball then demanded more money to fix the problems they'd helped create.  And they got it.  They got it because it was for "the children," one of the great racketeering lines in politics.

Cut education spending and demand more from the schools, and from parents.  If we have some spine, we can do it.

March 8, 2011      Permalink

TIMING IS EVERYTHING, CONT'D – AT 8:05 P.M. ET:  National Public Radio (NPR) executives are expressing shock and dismay – shock and dismay, I tell you – over comments by one of their executives, secretly recorded as part of a journalistic sting operation.  This is making the internet rounds:

An NPR executive was caught on camera lambasting the Tea Party as "seriously racist" and claiming that liberals might be, as a whole, more educated than conservatives.

The comments from Ron Schiller, a senior executive at NPR and president of the NPR Foundation, were made during a meeting with two people posing as members of a fictitious Muslim organization. The two activists, who recorded the February meeting on hidden camera, were trying to convince NPR executives of accepting a $5 million donation -- money NPR apparently refused.

Schiller has since announced he is leaving NPR to join the Aspen Institute in Colorado, though NPR said there is "no connection" between the video of his comments and his departure.

Yeah, there's never a connection.

During the secretly recorded meeting, Schiller lamented how the Republican Party had been "hijacked" by the Tea Party.

"The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved with people's personal lives," he said.

NPR put out a statement reacting to the comments:

"We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for," the statement said.

Are you laughing as hard as I am?  Is NPR telling us that Schiller never expressed these views inside the organization?  What we have here is a classic "Casablanca" moment, in which the NPR honchos are shocked, shocked, to find such opinions expressed by one of their own.

In fact, those opinions pretty much express the mentality of NPR.  You won't find a statue of Ronald Reagan in their lobby.

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, who is not related to Ron Schiller, delivered a speech Monday in which she rejected claims of bias at NPR.

Yeah, and the Soviet Union was a workers' paradise.  Of course, Vivian Schiller probably believes that.

The timing of this incident is choice.  The NPR budget is up for consideration in Congress.  I'm sure, given the propensity of goofy billionaires to chase after left-wing causes, that the network could find private funding.  As a citizen, I resent having to pay taxes to finance a left-wing propaganda machine.  The nation somehow survived before we had public funding for NPR, or PBS.  We can survive again.

March 8, 2011     Permalink

THIS IS DISGRACEFUL – AT 9:39 A.M. ET:  The line put out by much of the media is that the Obama administration is really moderate, not leftist, and that charges to the contrary are just smears.

Well, watch what they do, not what they say.  And before you watch this, take a tranquilizer:

CNSNews.com) – The United States’ human rights record will be back in the spotlight at the U.N. Human Rights Council next week, when the U.S. delegation provides its response to more than 200 recommendations made by other governments, ranging from liberal democracies to the repressive regimes ruling Libya, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and China.

The idea that we are even dignifying this process is pathetic.  President Bush would have nothing to do with the Human Rights Council.

The recommendations cover a broad range of issues, from combating “Islamophobia” to scrapping Arizona’s controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 1070.

Yes, the country is rushing to imprison Muslims.  Why, haven't you seen the prison vans passing your home?

March 18 marks the final step in the process known as the United States’ first universal periodic review (UPR), an examination supervised by the Human Rights Council that every U.N. member state is expected to undergo every four years.

In a three-hour “interactive dialogue” last November, the U.S. delegation explained its human rights policies and heard comments and criticisms from scores of other country delegations.

Since then, the U.S. has considered a total of 228 recommendations made by various governments, and next Friday it will present the HRC with its response, indicating which recommendations it accepts and will act on, and which ones it rejects.

The council will then vote to adopt the UPR outcome report.

We will be judged by some of the biggest thugs in the world.  But to the American left, they aren't thugs, but "alternative governments" or "anti-imperialist" leaders.

Barack Obama has weakened this country, and his administration's participation in this humiliating farce is a perfeft example. 

March 8, 2011     Permalink

THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  The new Newsweek, just out, and under the editorship of Tina Brown, has a list of 150 women who shake the world. 

Included on the list are such worthies as Kirsten Gillibrand, our U.S. senator here in New York, who, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't shaken much of anything.  Also included is one of our least favorite journalists, Christiane Amanpour, who drifted from CNN to ABC, where her ratings are barely at ground level.  Her two viewers, though, are very loyal.

But Christiane is in a position to bestow a mighty thank-you to Newsweek, as the great site, NewsBusters, points out:

Newsweek and Daily Beast editor Tina Brown flattered This Week host Christiane Amanpour by placing her on a list of 150 women who "shake the world." The ABC anchor responded to this praise by featuring Brown on her Sunday show, touting the females on the list (which described the host as "one of the world's most renowned journalists"). She enthused, "Who could fail to be optimistic?"

On the show, Amanpour never mentioned her inclusion in this profile. Those not featured? Amanpour's ABC News colleagues, World News anchor Diane Sawyer and Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts, despite the fact that their shows are on five days a week and have higher ratings.

In addition to ignoring her place amongst these women, Amanpour also neglected to note that she will be participating in a panel on the same topic. "And we'll be watching the women's summit, the Daily Beast/Newsweek [sic] that's coming up this week," she vaguely explained at the close of the segment.

The ABC anchor hyped Brown ..."You are also going to show us the new cover of 'Newsweek,' which we're going to put up. And it is about 150 women who shake the world with Hillary Clinton as the cover."

COMMENT:  Amanpour had an absolute journalistic obligation to mention that she was included in the list, so viewers could assess her lavish treatment of Brown more accurately.  But Amanpour doesn't stick to the rules, and never has. 

This backscratching, though, is pretty outrageous.  I wonder if ABC News will have any reaction.

This is the way the game is played.

March 8, 2011      Permalink 

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 8:19 A.M. ET:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The last surviving great-grandson of Ulysses S. Grant has died in a southwest Missouri home brimming with artifacts from the nation's 18th president and commander of the Union forces in the Civil War.  Ulysses S. Grant VI says his grandfather Ulysses S. Grant V died Wednesday at age 90 at his home near the town of Battlefield, named for its proximity to a Civil War clash.

Many American students, products of our current educational system, will read this story and probably ask, "What Civil War?"

March 8, 2011      Permalink

PRICE AT THE PUMP COULD PUT OBAMA IN A SLUMP – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  We've been saying for months that high gas prices at the pump were a political threat to President Obama in 2012.  Prices have soared in the last few weeks, and are more than four bucks a gallon for regular in some places. 

That's already too high.  They may go higher.  The president, already being compared with Jimmah Carter, certainly knows that one reason for the public's disenchantment with Carter was high gas prices.  From The Hill:

Skyrocketing oil prices are creating new political risks for President Obama, who is considering tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to relieve drivers suffering at the pump.

Republicans, sensing a winning issue, pounced Monday by announcing new hearings on gas prices and warning that tapping the reserves would provide only temporary help to consumers struggling with high gas prices.

Policies backed by the administration and congressional Democrats “have cost jobs, stunted economic growth and stuck American families with higher energy bills,” Rep. Tom Price (Ga.), the chairman of the House GOP Policy Committee, said in a statement Monday.

“The rise in gas prices is not merely the consequence of some temporary disruption and will therefore not be solved by some short-term fix,” he said. “It is a problem that requires an all-of-the-above energy strategy and one that should begin immediately.”

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, announced his panel would hold hearings to examine how “to develop our own American energy resources and also what has or hasn’t been done since President Obama took office.”

COMMENT:  If the Republicans don't botch it, they have a major issue.  The administration has been pushing "new energy sources," often at the behest of its ideological environmental wing, blind to the reality that these new sources won't be available for years, maybe decades, and require massive technological innovation.

In the meantime we run on oil, and the administration refuses to budge on new offshore drilling, or new, environmentally sensitive drilling in Alaska.  The average American family, not part of the crowd that flies to Aspen each year in private jets for "policy" conferences, is being hurt, and Obama is doing little or nothing about it. 

But there is a difference between 2012 and 1980.  In 1980 the Republicans had Ronald Reagan, although he was doubted by a large chunk of the traditional GOP ("we live to lose") establishment.  I see no Reagan on the horizon.  And so this anemic president might just slip through to reelection, despite the damage he does every day.

March 8, 2011      Permalink 

PLEASE DON'T COME TO MY NEIGHBORHOOD – AT 7:38 A.M. ET:  The exalted Libyan leader is reportedly trying to make a deal to leave:

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Moammar Gadhafi is trying to strike a deal with opposition leaders, saying he will step down as Libya's leader if they can guarantee him safe passage out of the country and promise that neither he nor his family will face prosecution, an official with the opposition said Tuesday.

Musa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, vehemently disputed the claim saying reports of negotiations with the opposition are "lies."

Despite government denials, a member of the opposition says it has submitted counter-offers with several demands. Among them is a stipulation that Gadhafi has to immediately concede he is not the ruler of Libya, said Amal Bugaigis, a member of the opposition group called the February 17 Coalition.

The development comes as Libya enters its fourth week of bloody clashes Tuesday and there was little doubt that the situation had turned into all-out civil war.

COMMENT:  Obviously, this story cannot be completely verified, but it has been reported by several news organizations.  The next step might be for some outside organization, like the Arab League, to offer to escort Gadhafi out of Libya...if a deal with the rebels can be reached.

There are no guarantees here.  Positions can harden, and the civil war can continue and grow.  We don't know who exactly the rebels are, or how fanatical or rational they are.  This is hour-by-hour.

March 8, 2011     Permalink