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MARCH 27,  2011

WHAA..? – AT 11:08 P.M. ET:  The secretary of state of the United States explains American foreign policy.  Urgent Agenda is thinking of offering a financial reward for any reader who can explain the explanation.  From Bloomberg:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. won’t enter into the internal conflict in Syria the way it has in Libya.

“No,” Clinton said, when asked on the CBS “Face the Nation” program if the U.S. would intervene in Syria’s unrest. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s security forces clashed with protesters in several cities yesterday after his promises of freedoms and pay increases failed to prevent dissent from spreading across the country.

Clinton said the elements that led to intervention in Libya -- international condemnation, an Arab League call for action, a United Nations Security Council resolution -- are “not going to happen” with Syria, in part because members of the U.S. Congress from both parties say they believe Assad is “a reformer.”

They do?  I'd like to know who these members of Congress are.  Name the names.  Assad runs a complete police state.

“What’s been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities,” Clinton said, referring to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s attacks on the Libyan people, “than police actions which, frankly, have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see.”

COMMENT:  So Assad is the slightly misguided good guy here?  Does anyone understand what our policy is?  You just get the feeling that it's amateur night in Washington, with the president hoping that the mainstream media will cover for him once again.

The Mideast is burning.  We really have no policy.

March 27, 2011      Permalink

THE SILENCE OF THE PRESS – AT 10:29 P.M. ET:  The Jerusalem Post reports the beatings of journalists in Gaza.  The story is written by courageous Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, who also writes for the Hudson Institute website. 

A number of Palestinian women journalists complained on Sunday that they had been beaten and tortured by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip.

They said the assaults occurred in recent days when they and their colleagues tried to cover pro-unity rallies in different parts of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas policemen used force to disperse the protesters, who were calling for an end to the dispute between the Islamist movement and Fatah. The rallies were part of a Facebook campaign organized by Palestinian youth on March 15.

At least eight journalists were beaten by the Hamas police officers during the rallies.

Some had their cameras and laptops confiscated, while others were taken into custody and made to sign a document pledging to refrain from covering such events in the future.

Later, Hamas security personnel raided the offices of a number of media organizations and confiscated equipment and documents. Among the offices targeted were Reuters, CNN and a Japanese TV network.

COMMENT:  Have you seen anything about this in the mainstream press?  Have you seen anything on CNN?

There is an ugly history of CNN, and other outlets, making deals with Arab dictatorships to play down their cruelty in exchange for access.   CNN made a deal like that with Saddam Hussein.  When it was exposed, a CNN executive, a sacrificial lamb, had to step down. 

It's a sickening picture.  On balance, I think the press has done a decent job of reporting the recent upheavals in the Mideast.  But when it comes to the "Palestinians," a vague term at best, there too often has been a free pass.  A few days ago Dan Rather complained that some members of his crew were subjected to humiliating security checks in Israel, and I think his complaints may have some merit.  But on Hamas beatings of journalists, only a curious silence.

March 27, 2011       Permalink

A CRITICAL RELATIONSHIP – AT 11:20 A.M. ET:  Again, it is so easy to be distracted by all that is going on in the Mideast.  Let's not forget that American forces are fighting in Afghanistan, and that next-door Pakistan, a nuclear power, is one of our most critical relationships, anywhere in the world.  That relationship is in big trouble, with potentially catastrophic results.  From ABC:

Even in diplomatese, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes it clear that the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is not in an ideal place.

On “This Week,” ABC News’ Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper asked, “Has this relationship gotten worse in the last six months, U.S.-Pakistan?”

“Well, Jake, it's a very challenging relationship because there have been some problems,” Clinton said. “We were very appreciative of getting our diplomat out of Pakistan and that took cooperation by the government of Pakistan,” she said, referring to the release of Raymond Davis, the American CIA contractor recently released after months in a Pakistani prison on charges of murdering two men in Lahore.

“We have cooperated very closely together in going after terrorists who pose a threat to both us and the Pakistanis themselves. But it's a very difficult relationship because Pakistan is in a hard position trying to figure out how it's going to contend with its own internal extremist threat,” she said.

COMMENT:  Translated:  There's a lot of support for Al Qaeda in Pakistan, and within the Pakistani government. 

If Pakistan slips to the other side, with its arsenal of nuclear weapons, we will face an unprecedented threat.  It will also be a sharp rebuke to those who say we've exaggerated the danger of terrorism.  These political ostriches never seem to consider the potential for terrorists to get their hands on atomic weapons, already built and store-bought. 

Look at what's happening all over the world.  And then look at who's in the White House.

Remember bomb shelters?  Start digging.

March 27, 2011      Permalink

ONE HAND CLAPPING – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  Libyan rebels, according to AP, are making progress, following NATO-led air attacks on government forces:

RAS LANOUF, Libya -- Libyan rebels seized back two key oil complexes and pushed west toward Tripoli on Sunday, gaining momentum after international airstrikes that tipped the balance away from Moammar Gadhafi's military.

The coastal complexes at Ras Lanouf and Brega were responsible for a large chunk of Libya's 1.5 million barrels of daily exports, which have all but stopped since the uprising that began Feb. 15 and was inspired by the toppling of governments in Tunisia and Egypt.

On the eastern approach of Ras Lanouf, airstrikes apparently hit three empty tank transporters and left two buildings that appeared to be sleeping quarters pockmarked with shrapnel.

"There was no resistance. Gadhafi's forces just melted away," said Suleiman Ibrahim, a 31-year-old volunteer, sitting in the back of a pickup truck on the road between the two towns. "This couldn't have happened without NATO. They gave us big support."

COMMENT:  We write "one hand clapping" because of recent, cautionary reports that rebel forces have been infiltrated by Al Qaeda supporters.  If the rebels win, and Al Qaeda becomes a major influence in the Libyan government, we'll be in a worse spot than we were in before.  We really don't have much good intelligence on who the rebels are, and we desperately need it.

March 27, 2011       Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:29 A.M. ET:  The public has now had a chance to absorb President Obama's non-performance in the Libya crisis.  Normally, Americans rally 'round the president when our forces are sent into action.  This time, the launching of U.S. air strikes on Libya has not resulted in any important change in Obama's poll numbers, which remain the general range they were in last year.  From Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16.

And...

Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) now disapprove of his performance.

COMMENT:  What's interesting is that, while the president's support is soft, and well below his level on inauguration day, he still retains some support in the mid-40s.  It doesn't really change all that much.  In part this is because Obama retains overwhelming support among several key groups, especially minorities, who will not abandon him no matter what he does.  And the mainstream press, while generally more critical of him than it has been in the past, still will not savage him the way it savaged Bush.

As an incumbent, Mr. Obama retains advantages for 2012.  He's a botch master, one of the weakest presidents I've seen, but he will still be difficult to beat.

March 27, 2011      Permalink

AND IN IRAN – AT 10:17 A.M. ET:  Our friend Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, an Iranian human-rights activist of the first rank, yesterday reported the following:

On Monday, March 13th, the Iranian regime executed, in secret, a Jewish-Armenian (Orthodox Christian) couple along with three other individuals in Tehran’s Evin prison. Ms. Adiva Mirza-Soleiman was of the Jewish faith who along with her Armenian husband, Varouzhan Petrossian, was executed. The Iranian regime has refused to disclose the specific charges against the five, that lead to their execution.

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that though Iranian court part 28 confirmed that the five were in fact executed, they refused to surrender their bodies to their relatives for burial. The families of the couple who had planned to bury each of them according to each of their faith’s funeral customs have been threatened and arrested.

COMMENT:  It is easy, with all that's happening in the Mideast, to forget the cruelty of the Iranian regime toward its own people.  It's also easy to forget that Iran is emerging as the great power in the region, thanks in part to the ineffectivness of American foreign policy.   Obama's meekness in the face of a general revolt of Iranians in 2009 set the tone, and sent a signal to the Iranian mullahs that we weren't going to do much, or even say much, in defense of democracy in Iran.

And the Iranian nuclear program forges ahead.

March 27, 2011     Permalink

MARCH 26,  2011

THE COST OF HIGH TAXES – AT 10:32 P.M. ET:  Many politicians, especially on the state level, refuse to confront the cost of high taxes.  But the cost is very real, and can destroy whole communities.

New York, for example, where Urgent Agenda is written, is a high-tax state.  And a high cost-of-living as well.  In recent years New York has become the highest out-migration state in the nation.  More people leave New York each year than leave any other state.  The people who leave are usually the most productive.  Nothing is being done about this.

Now Illinois, which just imposed new taxes to balance its reckless budget, is learning the cost of high taxes:

SPRINGFIELD -- The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.

In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.

"I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I'd like to work with you to change that."

Oberhelman said he's being actively courted to move.

"I have been called, 'cornered' in meetings and 'wined and dined' -- the heat is on," Oberhelman wrote. "Before, I never really considered living anywhere else and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day."

COMMENT:  The problem is, the policymakers in Springfield don't care.  They already have their speeches written should Cat decide to leave.  The words will be familiar:  turncoats, greedy capitalists, anti-labor, inhuman.  Just recall the language used by protesters in Wisconsin who didn't like the governor's attempts to bring public-service unions down to Earth.

I believe that the next ten years may well see some of the largest population shifts this country has witnessed since the post-World-War II years.  It isn't only companies that will move, it will be individuals, looking for well-run states that are friendly to initiative.  Our state of New York isn't one of them, and we are losing.  Illinois, where I went to college, is another business-unfriendly state, and it is losing as well.

March 26, 2011      Permalink

JAPAN STILL STRUGGLES – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  There clearly has been some radiation damage from the Japanese nuclear plant crippled in the recent earthquake.  But, day by day, technicians are making progress.  The damage overall from the quake and tsunami, human and economic, is still being assessed.  The effects will be felt for years.  From The New York Times:

TOKYO — The work of digging out and rebuilding continued in Japan on Saturday, more than two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, as a government spokesman said he could not predict when the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex would be brought under control.

Workers on Saturday resumed repair efforts Saturday, restoring lighting to the central control room of the No. 2 unit, Tokyo Electric Power said. It was another step toward restarting the cooling system that shut down after the disaster. That leaves only the No. 4 unit without lighting.

They also began pumping in fresh water to the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 units, after days of spraying the reactors with corrosive salt water. The United States military was aiding the effort, sending barges with 500,000 gallons of fresh water from the Yokosuka naval base. Those were expected to arrive later Saturday.

And...

The government has said the cost of reconstruction could reach $300 billion or more, which would make it the most destructive natural disaster ever. And that leaves unanswered what will be the ultimate cost of the reactor cleanup.

In Tokyo, where some goods remain in short supply, the mood remains subdued more than two weeks after the quake, dampened by the knowledge of the struggle at the power plant more than 100 miles north of the city and concern for the tens of thousands of quake and tsunami survivors who are only now starting to think of rebuilding their lives.

Yet, there is no looting, no rioting, and there are no "international funds" that mysteriously disappear.  There is, very legitimately, anger over apparent corruption involving safety reviews at the crippled plant. 

Japan will rebuild, but the economic damage from the quake could easily affect our own economy here.  We'll know more about that as the months progress.

March 26, 2011      Permalink 

POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS FROM LIBYA – AT 11:04 A.M. ET:  We say "possible" because there are real concerns about who some of the rebels are, and what they believe in.  But this may be, at least for now, some positive news:

Ajdabiya, Libya (CNN) -- Aided by coalition airstrikes, Libyan opposition forces claimed victory Saturday over Moammar Gadhafi's forces in wresting control of a strategically located eastern city while a battle in the west raged as loyalist tanks resumed the shelling of Misrata.

Loyalist forces retreated Saturday after days of fierce fighting in Ajdabiya, where the opposition reveled in its key victory in the city considered a gateway to Libya's vast oil fields and a stopping point on route to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Ajdabiya is now "100 percent" in opposition hands, said Shame Eldin Abu Almulla, spokesman for Libya's opposition interim council.

"As far as the military forces of Gadhafi, many of them have surrendered, others are retreating back and are being pursued towards Brega as of this minute," he said.

The Ajdabiya victory is viewed as a significant move forward for the Libyan opposition, which intends to take the fight all the way to the capital. It also served as evidence of the impact of coalition airstrikes.

But then there are the troubling reports of Al Qaeda elements among the rebels.  Our human intelligence is abysmal in Libya, but members of Congress will have some hard questions this week about who we're actually backing.

We learn that President Obama has condescended to make an address to the American people early in the week about our Libyan involvement.  We thank our gracious president for taking time out from hoops to speak to us, and we will hang on his every wonderful word.

March 26, 2011      Permalink

MIDEAST EXPLOSIONS – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  There is almost an exhaustion about reporting on the Mideast.  So much is happening in so many places.  Oh, by the way, did any of the Middle East "experts" you see on TV predict this?  I wonder why not.

This morning we read about further violence in Syria, one of the key Arab countries, and far more important in the Arab equation that Libya.  From Fox:

Security troops stormed a protest sit-in near the capital Damascus, arresting about 200 people in the midnight raid, activists said Saturday, the latest violence in the unrelenting crackdown on protests that have spread to this Mideast country.

The activists said up to 4,000 people were demonstrating in the town of Douma on the outskirts of Damascus when, around midnight Friday, electricity was cut and the protesters came under attack. The activists spoke on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals.

They said troops attacked the protesters with sticks and clubs, injuring several, but those reports could not be independently confirmed. An eyewitness who drove to Douma Saturday said there were no traces of a fight in the area and shops were open.

As calm returned to Syrian cities Saturday, a human rights activist said authorities released 70 political prisoners. The release was an apparent effort to appease the protesters and contain the fallout from a deadly crackdown on demonstrations that have gripped Syria for a week. Groups of detainees have been released earlier in the week as well.

COMMENT:  Please note that Saudi Arabia, another key country, contained its protests.  The Syrian regime is known for its harshness, and I'd expect that it will do anything necessary to put down the revolt.  And, the way things are in international politics, the "realists" will be back in Damascus negotiating with the Syrians two weeks later, as if nothing had happened. 

Recall that Bush 41 sent super-realist adviser Brent Scowcroft to Beijing only months after the Tiananmen Square riots, and it was business as usual.  Didn't get us very far.  It's been my experience that the "realists" are often the most unrealistic people in town.

March 26, 2011      Permalink 

PERSONNEL NEWS – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  It appears that Katie Couric will have her anchor raised by June and will be departing the Evening News chair at CBS.  From Howard Kurtz at the Daily Beast:

The CBS Evening News anchor is very likely to leave in June, and Scott Pelley is a top contender to replace her—but CBS is looking both within and outside the network, Howard Kurtz reports.

The search is on for Katie Couric’s successor.

The new CBS News chairman, Jeff Fager, is looking at candidates both within and outside the network, insiders say.

COMMENT:  Look, she didn't cut it.  And, frankly, her obvious liberal bias drove viewers away, as it has driven viewers away from other outlets as well.

We do hope that CBS News uses this opportunity to ask about itself, what it wants to be, what it aspires to be.  We also hope that there are some serious questions asked about the ridiculous, inflated salaries being paid to some "stars," and pseudo-stars.  Couric's salary is usually estimated to be in the $14-million to $15-million range each year.  What if they'd paid her a miserable $5-million?  Do you know how many reporters CBS could have hired with the savings? 

Some say that network news shows are dinosaurs, given the 24-hour news cycle serviced by CNN and Fox.  To a degree, that's true.  But only to a degree.  There's always room for good journalism and enterprising reporters.  Couric's departure is an opportunity for CBS to restore some of the luster, starting with a good, hard look at bias and what it has done to the news profession.  We wish them well.

March 26, 2011     Permalink