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OCTOBER 15,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:25 P.M. ET:

BRILLIANCE – Formerly famous filmmaker Michael Moore is urging the police to join the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, the way some Egyptian soldiers joined the protest movement in their country.  Is this man serious?  One of the gems of our democracy is that the military and the police are not involved in politics.  Indeed, we pride ourselves on civilian control of both the military and the police.  Apparently, Moore, a highly uninformed man, prefers the Middle Eastern example.  Maybe he dreams of being information minister in the next junta, led by Field Marshal Harry Belafonte.

DISGRACE – We're often reminded of how deeply the far left has penetrated key American institutions, like the schools and the media.  In Somerville, Massachusetts, a school principal is banning celebrations of Columbus Day, Halloween and...Thanksgiving.   "When we were young we might have been able to claim ignorance of the atrocities that Christopher Columbus committed against the indigenous peoples," wrote Kennedy School Principal Anne Foley.
"We can no longer do so. For many of us and our students celebrating this particular person is an insult and a slight to the people he annihilated. On the same lines, we need to be careful around the Thanksgiving Day time as well."  This is the standard leftist line.  We're evil, and everyone else is wonderful.  Sickening.

WE WONDER WHY – Movie grosses this weekend are projected to be 35% below last year's at this time.  Gee, I wonder why.  You don't think it could have anything to do with the rotten movies that are being turned out, do you?  Nah.  Why, isn't Hollywood filled with Ivy Leaguers?  Don't these smart people know?  No they don't.  Hollywood has completely detached itself from the country, has utter contempt for the audience, and believes anyone over 25 is suspect.  There was a time, especially in the golden age that spanned the thirties through the fifties, when Hollywood executives were close to the audience, had some self-respect, and turned out many marvelous films.  Adults were welcome in the theaters.  Today, young urban males are the target audience.  And these Hollywood types call themselves educated.  They may be, but too many lack talent, taste, and vision.  But who needs that stuff?

MOVE AGAINST IRAN? – The New York Times reports that President Obama is pressing the UN to release intelligence that proves Iran is designing and experimenting with nuclear weapons technology.  This, combined with the very public release of charges that Iran was involved in an assassination plot and possible bomb plots to be executed on American soil, has some speculating that Obama may be planning some kind of major move against Tehran in the coming months.  We will back the president on this – it's long overdue – but taking major action in an election year will unquestionably lead to speculation about political motives. 

October 15, 2011     Permalink

OBAMACARE HIT BY FISCAL REALITY – AT 11:20 A.M. ET:  Is this a sign of something coming?   A major component of the Obamacare (let's make our health system as bad as everyone else's) program is being abandoned, at least temporarily.  You know, it's really better when these things are thought through before they're passed.  From WaPo:

The Obama administration cut a major planned benefit from the 2010 health-care law on Friday, announcing that a program to offer Americans insurance for long-term care was simply unworkable.

Although the program had been dogged from the start by doubts about its feasibility, its elimination marks the first time the administration has backed away from a key piece of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement.

Republican critics of the law immediately said the decision proved that the legislation is unsound and unsustainable. Every major GOP presidential candidate has pledged to work to repeal it.

Because the insurance program had been projected to reduce the federal deficit by $86 billion over the next 10 years, terminating it complicates the nation’s budget picture. It is now estimated that the health-care law will cut the deficit by $124 billion from 2012 to 2021, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

COMMENT:  Uh, what about long-term care?  Here you see one of the major problems with central planning.  If the central plan fails, millions have nowhere to turn...having depended on the central plan. 

However, it will not be enough for Republicans to gloat because people will be hurt.  The idea is to come up with a fiscally sound alternative to present to the American people.  I'm not so sure anyone has that plan just yet. 

October 15, 2011      Permalink

FAMILY MATTERS – AT 11:01 A.M. ET:  It is brutal stuff, but the United States continously to pursue, very seriously, the remnants of the Al Quada leadership.  Two big scores today.  We don't celebrates the deaths of our fellow man, but we have the right, it seems to me, to preempt attacks on our own people.  The ACLU will disagree.  From Fox:

SANAA, Yemen – American drone strikes in southern Yemen have killed nine Al Qaeda-linked militants, including the media chief for the group's Yemeni branch and the son of a prominent U.S.-born cleric slain in a similar attack last month, government officials and tribal elders said Saturday...

...The airstrikes late Friday in the southeastern province of Shabwa pointed to Washington's growing use of drones to target Al Qaeda militants in Yemen. The missile attacks appear to be part of a determined effort to stamp out the threat from the group, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have said is the terror network's most active and most dangerous branch.

The Yemeni Defense Ministry identified the slain media chief as Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Bana. Tribal elders in the area also said the dead included Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki, the 21-year-old son of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim preacher and savvy Internet operator who became a powerful Al Qaeda recruiting tool in the West. He, along with another propagandist, Pakistani-American Samir Khan, were killed in a Sept. 30 U.S. drone attack.

And here's another:

CAIRO – A U.S. drone strike killed a son of Egyptian-born Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in Afghanistan, a radical Islamist group said.

Egypt's Gamaa Islamiya, or Islamic Group, had posted on its website on Saturday a notice mourning the death of Ahmed Abdel Rahman, the son of the "Blind Sheik" now serving a life sentence in the U.S. for his involvement in a plot to blow up New York city landmarks.

Abdel Rahman was the spiritual leader of the Gamaa, as well as of the men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The group said that Ahmed had gone to Afghanistan at the age of 14 with the sheik's other sons to fight against the Soviet Union, which occupied the country in the 1980s. The others eventually left, but he remained.

COMMENT:  Give credit where it's due.  Even strong conservatives are praising President Obama for keeping the heat on Al Qaeda.  And credit must be given to our intelligence community, which clearly has the right people in its crosshairs.

We will get some backlash on this from the left.  They are to be ignored.

October 15, 2011      Permalink

THE SKY IS NOT FALLING – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  We are informed that the "Occupy Wall Street" protests are "going global."  Is the revolution at hand?  Well...  From Financial Times:

The protests against the global financial system that have swept across the US in the past month have spread to the international stage, inspiring offshoot occupations in London, Sydney, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Toronto and other cities.

A “global day of protest” is planned for Saturday in at least 868 cities in 78 countries. Organisers say they are broadly in favour of greater democracy in global financial and political systems.
“Undemocratic international institutions are our global Mubarak, our global Assad, our global Gaddafi,” said a statement from Egality, an activist group that is helping co-ordinate the global protests.

Shimri Zameret, a co-ordinator for Egality, said that events such as the Arab spring, the student-led protest movement in Chile and Spain’s indignados , or outraged, who have been demonstrating against joblessness and austerity measures, were all part of the same global movement demanding greater democracy and fairness.

The inspiration for Saturday’s protests is the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US, which began in New York last month with the occupation of Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan, but has since spread to cities including Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco.

COMMENT:  One nasty thing about television – it has the capacity to make minor events into huge ones, simply by focusing a camera.  Please note that the size of these demonstrations is very small.  In an act of extreme recklessness, the Democratic Party, once a great institution, has tried to hitch itself to the protests, the better to gather their "energy" to the Democratic cause. 

There is no evidence that the demonstrators have any widespread support.  But the media, which mocked the much larger Tea Party movement, is promoting this one because it fits their vision of society.

We see no evidence that the "occupy" movement has galvanized the middle class, as claimed.  Yes, there are legitimate arguments that the movement makes – about crony capitalism and the vast overpayments to some executives.  Even conservatives like Sarah Palin are arguing that.  And yes, the very people who caused the 2008 financial crisis retained their power and are making out like bandits.  But these things require correctives, not revolutions.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the "demonstrators" are the usual suspects on the left.  They can scream "democracy," but they always wind up supporting dictatorships.  They can scream "equality," but they always seem to develop "leaders" who benefit from the movement.

We are getting some corrupt reporting, and I'm sorry to say that CNN, which has improved in the last year, is once again part of the problem.  The only thing that will cure this will be both management and personnel changes, and that's not going to happen.

So be careful.  These "demonstrations" have yet to prove themselves anywhere, except in the minds of journalism school professors.

October 15, 2011     Permalink

OCTOBER 14,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:24 P.M. ET:

SETBACK IN BRITAIN – There is probably no finer member of the British government than the secretary of state for defense, Liam Fox.  A Churchillian, a passionate believer in the special relationship with America, a conservative, and a man devoted to rebuilding Britain's defenses, he represents the Britain we love.  I heard him speak in New York and was deeply impressed.  Sadly, Fox committed a foolish blunder in mixing some personal business with his government position and has been forced to resign.  It is a major setback, but Fox should have known better.  I don't know how he can be replaced.

REVOLTING – Donny Deutsche, the advertising guy who doubles as a TV talk-show host, has gone degenerate in saying that the Occupy Wall Street moment needs a "Kent State" moment to galvanize support.  "Kent State" refers to the 1970 killing of four students at Ohio's Kent State University, when National Guard troops were called out to confront unruly protesters.  While Deutsche assured viewers that he wasn't suggesting anyone get killed, the comparison was revolting.  Oh, by the way, Deutsche sold his advertising agency in 2000 for $265-million.  Apparently that allowed him to feel our pain without suffering any himself.

MORE "PROGRESSIVISM" IN SAN FRANCISCO – The latest brilliant idea to come from Nancy Pelosi's home base is for waiters and waitresses to receive mandatory 25% tips.  Of course, naturally, some "workers" think it's a great idea.  Others do not, pointing out that the whole idea of a tip is to reward good service, and that the size of the tip reflects how good that service really is.  It's a bad idea, although probably no worse than "golden parachutes," that symbol of crony capitalism wherein failed executives get millions of dollars to sink a corporation, and are paid handsomely for their failure.

OBAMA VS. WALL STREET – Reports from Washington say that the Obama campaign will try to harness the energy of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and run against the Street in the 2012 campaign.  If Romney is the nominee, he will be targeted as a tool of big banks and investment houses.  The problem with this approach is that Obama himself has been close to Wall Street, has raised plenty of money there, and raised more money on the Street in 2008 than did John McCain.  Another problem is the number of fabulously wealthy Democrats in Congress, including Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry.  And I think it's foolish for anyone to get to close to the "occupy" movement, just as it was foolish to get too close to the Egyptian demonstrators during the "Arab spring."  Americans reacted to movements like this in the 1960s by going right, and electing Nixon, not by going left.

October 14, 2011    Permalink 

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 11:17 A.M. ET:

From Fox:  Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is apparently in a hurry to get ahold of a new iPhone 4S.  NBC11 is reporting that Wozniak was first in line when he showed up Thursday at the Apple store in Los Gatos.  With the new device going on sale Friday, Wozniak told the station that even though he has two new phones on the way, he plans on staying overnight outside the store.  Wozniak was one of about five people who were in line around 2 p.m. Thursday at the store.

Either Wozniak is a real down-to-Earth guy, or this is a shrewd PR move for some undisclosed purpose.  Wozniak is very bright.  He might now emerge.

THE MAN WHO... – AT 9:20 A.M. ET:  There is probably nothing sadder in this election season than seeing the collapse of Rick Perry.  He is America's longest-serving governor, and a successful governor at that.  He is known as a vigorous campaigner.  He is engaging and warm.  Two months ago he was the great hope of GOP conservatives, unhappy with the field.  Now he is approaching the status of an also-ran. 

So what happened?  Byron York has the best piece I've seen on this, and it serves as a warning to other would-be presidential candidates:

Blaming the Texas governor's problems on a lackluster debating style -- as Perry himself has done after a number of poor performances -- answers only part of the question. Yes, debates are particularly important this campaign season. But debates are more than just style and popularity contests. They reveal deeper things about candidates; voters watching debates can learn not only how a candidate handles tough questions but whether he is really, truly prepared to run for the White House...

...The Rick Perry who has taken the stage in four Republican debates so far is a man who, for all his governing success in Texas, appears not to have thought enough about why he wants to be president of the United States and what he would do if he achieved his goal. When critics gently say that Perry's presentations have been "light on details," they're really saying Perry doesn't seem to have thought things through.

And that is the image that's developing.

For Romney, debate preparation involves taking all the things he has already thought through and finding the most effective way to present them in one-minute answers. For Perry, debate preparation is trying to learn new stuff about national issues that he should have been thinking about a long time ago.

It's often pointed out that since Perry entered the Republican race late, on Aug. 13, he had little time to build a campaign organization and hone a campaign pitch. That's true, but the fact is, if Perry wanted to be president, he should have been thinking seriously about the substance of national issues -- not just money-raising and state chairmen -- years before he declared his candidacy.

Now Perry is paying the price for that lack of preparation. And if that, in fact, is the real problem behind his poor debate performances, then he's not going to improve as a candidate in the next few weeks. It's far too late for that.

COMMENT:  I'm afraid it's true.  It was also true of Fred Thompson in 2008.  He also was the great hope.  But when he finally entered the race, nothing happened.  He didn't seem ready, or even that engaged.  And the same thing was true of Ted Kennedy, when he tried to unseat fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980.  In the key moment of Kennedy's campaign, he was asked by Roger Mudd why he wanted to be president.  He stumbled around for an answer, wandering aimlessly through some clichés.  That pretty much ended it.

We could easily say – and it would be true – that Barack Obama was unprepared for the presidency when he ran.  But the disgraceful bias of the press protected him.  There is no such protection for a conservative Republican. 

I have the gut feeling that Rick Perry might have been a very fine president, with a strong sense of what America is about.  I doubt now that he'll ever get that chance.  But his experience teaches us once again how hard it is to run for president, and how well prepared a conservative has to be.

October 14, 2011       Permalink

HERMAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  The buzz is all about Herman Cain, who's rising to the top in several polls of Republicans.  Will it last?  Should it?

As we've noted here, Cain's rise seems fueled, at least in part, by the anyone-but-Romney position of many conservative Republicans, who have been looking for an alternative to the former Massachusetts governor, whom they clearly do not trust.  It reminds me of the old basketball cheer, familiar to anyone who went to high-school games:  "Jones, Jones, he's our man; if he can't do it, Ellsworth can;  Ellsworth, Ellsworth, he's our man; if he can't do it, Carlson can."

First there was Bachmann.  Then there was Pawlenty.  Then there was Perry.  There almost was Palin, but she dropped out, as did another "almost," Chris Christie.  Mitch Daniels said no. 

Now it's Herman Cain.  Frankly, I have my doubts.  Cain is an intelligent, engaging man with a good record in business, although he's never run anything more than a medium-sized company.  He isn't David Packard, of Hewlett-Packard, who served as Undersecretary of Defense.  He isn't Charles Wilson, of General Motors, who served as secretary of defense. 

Cain is attractive, straightforward, with a wonderful story of a man coming from a hard-working family (his mother was a maid) and making it on his own, despite racial barriers.  But we know so little about him.  He has no record on foreign policy.  Even though he is capable, unlike many politicians, of saying "I don't know," there may be too many things he doesn't know.  We were burned in 2008 by electing a minor Chicago politician with a golden voice to the presidency.  I don't want to see us burned again.

So Herman Cain has to expand his horizons vastly beyond his now-famous, if unknown, "9-9-9" plan for tax reform.  His campaign is minimally organized.  He has little money.  He's not been subjected to serious questioning, although that will probably now change.  Naturally, racialists accuse him of not being a "legitimate" black man because he refuses to toe the standard leftist line.  He's parried that charge beautifully, and shows he has real fight in him.

His "9-9-9" plan is coming under fire, including concentrated fire from conservatives.  It includes a national sales tax that may well impact the average American severely.  Yes, it freezes all income tax rates at 9%, but most in the middle class and below pay far less than that when deductions are applied.  They may pay more under Cain's plan.  Cain claims his 9% corporate rate will allow companies to lower the price of their products, offsetting the sales tax.  But will they?  Or will the windfall go right into the pockets of the same vastly overpaid executives so many Americans are enraged about?  Cain must detail his plan and offer real answers to serious questions.

Cain may turn out to be another flavor of the month.  Or, he could go all the way.  There's another debate next week.  He'll have a chance to prove himself, or fade under concentrated fire.  

October 14, 2011       Permalink

WASHINGTON FINALLY NOTICED – AT 8:32 A.M. ET:  We've been reporting here that large stores of missiles are missing from the Libyan arsenal.  There have been fears that they will fall into the hands of Al Qaeda, Hamas, or Hezbollah.  Some stories running now indicate how serious this can be.  Some of these misssiles are surface-to-air, capable of bringing down airliners taking off or landing.  From WaPo:

TRIPOLI — The United States is planning to dispatch dozens of former military personnel to Libya to help track down and destroy surface-to-air missiles from Moammar Gaddafi’s stockpiles that U.S. officials worry could be used by terrorists to take down passenger jets.

The weapons experts are part of a rapidly expanding $30 million program to secure Libya’s conventional weapons in the wake of the most violent conflict to occur in the Arab Spring, according to State Department officials who provided new details of the effort.

Fourteen contractors with military backgrounds have been sent to help Libyan officials, and the U.S. government is looking at sending dozens more. Thousands of pamphlets in Arabic, English and French will be delivered to neighboring countries so border guards can recognize the heat-seeking missiles, the officials said. It could grow to become one of the three biggest U.S. weapons-retrieval program in the world, along with those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A little late, I'm afraid.  There's this disturbing report from the Jerusalem Post:

Egypt security officers said they intercepted surface-to-air missiles smuggled from Libya through the Sinai peninsula, the Washington Post reported, a day after Egypt reportedly flew fighter jets over certain areas of Sinai without requisite permission from Israel.

According to the Washington Post report, an Egyptian source said that Palestinians in Gaza had likely struck a deal over the weapons with contacts in Libya.

Such weapons pose a serious threat to Israel, which regularly patrols the strip with "helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft," the Washington Post reported. It is the second time in a month that Egyptian security forces announced they had intercepted smuggled weapons in Sinai.

If one of those missiles brings down an Israeli plane, a new Mideast war could break out.  And it would be comparatively easy to break those missiles down and send parts around the world.  This is a growing story, and I suspect it will lead to some real tragedies.  Terror groups have long sought a supply of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles.

October 14, 2011       Permalink

NEW YORK MAYOR CAVES, DEMONSTRATORS MARCH – AT 8:15 A.M. ET:  There's been a disturbing development in the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York.

The city's increasingly erratic mayor, Mike Bloomberg, cancelled plans to order the demonstrators out of the private park that they've taken over so the park can be cleaned.  Media outlets report that the city administration feared a confrontation with police.

So, what is the result?  Predictable.  The New York Post reports:

About 200 Occupy Wall Street protesters -- emboldened by officials backing down this morning from evicting them from their Zuccotti Park campsite for a cleaning -- stormed Wall Street, leaping over barriers and getting into a fracas with cops.

The throng of protesters streamed on to Broadway, blocking traffic, setting up a confrontation with police who are waiting for them on the street.

Things turned predictably violent as cops tackled protesters and chased them up the street -- forcing everyone to the sidewalks -- in what turned into a melee.

Police arrested at least eight people on Beaver Street, as a throng of protesters flipped over a police scooter on Broadway.

Cuffed protesters yelled, "The whole world is watching!" Shame on you!"

That slogan is right out of the sixties.  I'm afraid the truth is coming out about many in this "movement."

Joseph Vitulli, 32, an unemployed man from Brooklyn, said, "The city tried to intimidate us, they threatened us and tried to put us in our place. But we showed them what we are all made of and we did it without violence.

"We came together, we got the support we needed and we won. This is huge for us. We showed them that our solidarity and commitment to the cause is stronger than the threat of arrest. We're on a roll. Nothing can stop us now."

Allison Schwartz 22, a waitress, said the protest continues.

"I can't believe it. I thought it was all over. I was so ready to be arrested," she said. "I thought that's what it was going to come down to. This changes everything. I've never been more confident that we are all going to make a difference. They're going to need an army to stop us now. A few cops wont make a difference."

The brazen act comes after Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said the owners of the private park, Brookfield Office Properties, had put off the power-washing that protesters said would kill their demonstration, which has been on since Sept. 17.

Hundreds of people crowded in to the park overnight as a sign of strength against the police who said they would escort the cleaning crews and remove any protesters who refused to leave.

COMMENT:  We also now learn that demonstrators in Boston spat at some Coast Guard women who were passing by.  That, too, is right out of the sixties.

And we also see an increasing number of anti-Semitic signs.  The magazine that started all this, AdBusters, has a history of anti-Jewish articles. 

We try to be fair here, sometimes to the dismay of some readers.  We report what we see and avoid jumping to rash conclusions.  But events of the last few days are disturbing, especially as this movement now has the endorsement of leading Democratic Party officials. 

Stand by for more.

October 14, 2011     Permalink