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OCTOBER 22,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:03 P.M. ET:

VACANT WARNING – Hillary Clinton is warning Iran not to interfere in Iraq once all American troops are out of Iraq by the end of the year.  The warning is vacant.  What precisely would America do?  We won't have any troops in the area, we've let Iran continue with its nuclear program, we don't help the Iranian democratic opposition in any way, and all we do is apply sanctions that have been ineffective.  In addition, the Iraqi regime is sympathetic toward Iran and completely ungrateful toward the United States.  I'm sure the mullahs of Tehran are studying Clinton's warning carefully.  Not.

MORE GRATITUDE – Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose regime is propped up by American blood and treasure, says that if the U.S. and Pakistan are ever involved in a military conflict, Afghanistan would side with Pakistan.  Hey, thanks Hamid.  That'll go down well with the parents of the American soldiers who save your bacon every day.  What is it with these Muslim leaders?  They have no sense of gratitude at all.  They think we owe them a favor.   We have made friends of former enemies like Japan and Germany, yet Muslim countries we assist, with some important exceptions, treat us like the help.

BACHMANN FADING – Several key members of Michele Bachmann's New Hampshire staff have resigned, another sad sign that Bachmann's campaign is fading.  She reached a high point when she won the Iowa straw poll, but has been struggling ever since Rick Perry entered the race and sucked away much of Bachmann's support.  Bachmann gets one more chance in Iowa when the state holds its caucuses.  If she fails to perform in Iowa again, I'm afraid it's over for her.

JINDAL WINS AGAIN – Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has just been re-elected.  It wasn't too long ago that Jindal was considered a rising Republican star, with a good shot at the presidency.  His star seems to have dimmed somewhat, in part because of a disastrous performance giving the Republican reply to a presidential speech.  He just isn't mentioned much these days.  Maybe his re-election would bring some attention back to him.  I still think he's a dynamic, terrific and original guy.

October 22, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:

From London's Telegraph:  The no-holds barred biography of Steve Jobs has revealed that former president Bill Clinton consulted the Apple boss on what to do about his affair with Monica Lewinsky during a late night tete-a-tete.   Jobs reportedly replied: 'I don't know if you did it, but if so, you've got to tell the country.'  According to his biographer Walter Isaacson, after Jobs delivered his advice: 'There was silence on the other end of the line.'

Maybe Clinton thought Jobs would just advise him to hit the "delete" key and erase any pictures of Monica in iPhoto.

THE END IN IRAQ – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  The President announced yesterday that all American troops will be out of Iraq by year's end, essentially terminating the American role in the Iraq war.

Virtually every military expert cautioned that we must have a contingent in Iraq to maintain the country's stability and safeguard the gains we made.  But the Iraq government, reflecting the general lack of gratitude that we get in that region, refused to grant any remaining force legal immunity, meaning an American soldier under charge could be tried in an Iraqi court, rather than by an American court martial.  That is unacceptable to the United States, and so a deal for a continuing American presence collapsed. 

The question is whether all the sacrifice will now go down the drain.  Without American protection, Iraq can easily slip within the Iranian orbit.  The country can itself descend once more into chaos, with the different tribes fighting each other.  It's been pointed out that the Iraq regime has acted badly toward the United States, without whose blood and treasure that very regime would not exist.  American contractors have not received a single oil contract in Iraq.  The contracts have gone to countries like Russia and China. 

Will the Iraq mission eventually fail?  It seems more likely without the protective presence of American troops.  And if it does, it will be very hard to justify any further intervention in the region.  The American people will not accept it, and the Islamists will have won a major victory.

October 22, 2011       Permalink

JUSTICE GOES FISHING – AT 10:42 A.M. ET:  We have been reporting on the sorry performance of Eric Holder's Department of Justice, which provides justice, on a silver platter, to members of approved groups.

The great Dorothy Rabinowitz, of The Wall Street Journal, one of the country's best investigative reporters, reports on Justice's latest triumph – turning an Illinois Muslim teacher's absurd and immature demand into a civil right:

...even Americans accustomed to the relentless -- more precisely the relentlessly selective -- political correctness of the Obama Justice Department had to have been startled at the facts of this case and the deranged notions of equity that had impelled Eric Holder's DOJ to go rushing into battle against the school district.

The school teacher in question, Safoorah Khan, a middle school math lab instructor, had worked at the school for barely a year when she applied for some 19 days unpaid leave so that she could make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The school district denied the request: She was the only math lab instructor the school had, her absence would come just at the period before exams, and furthermore, the leave she wanted was outside the bounds set for all teachers under their union contract.

Charging religious discrimination, Ms. Khan resigned and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Justice Department took it from there, filing a lawsuit in December 2010, claiming the teacher's civil rights had been violated. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez noted at the time that a great wave of intolerance was being visited on Muslims in America, and this was one of the reasons for taking the case.

In Mr. Perez's view and that of the DOJ apparently, the school district's refusal of 19 days leave for Ms. Khan at a time when her presence was vitally needed -- a leave available to no other teacher under the union contract -- sufficed as proof that the district was guilty of bias against Muslims, and of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Last week the terms of the settlement were announced. The Berkeley School District was to pay the teacher $75, 000 for her trouble -- back pay and lawyers fees. The District is now also required to establish mandatory training in religious accommodation for all personnel.

COMMENT:  The pilgrimage to Mecca is required of a Muslim only once in a lifetime.  This young teacher had years ahead to make the journey.  The settlement, which will deprive the struggling district of $75,000 that cannot go for books, must still be approved by a federal court, so there is hope that it can still be overturned.  Still, the chilling effect on other districts cannot be denied.  School districts throughout the country will now be inclined to grant absurd requests, even if they hurt children, but only if these requests come from members of anointed groups.

The instigator, Tom Perez, runs the civil rights division.  He is known as a hard leftist, even a radical, and many commentators warned about him when he was first appointed.  He has justified the warnings. 

Just yesterday we learned that Justice is rewriting manuals for the war on terror, deleting materials that radical Muslim groups find offensive. 

President Obama has gotten high marks for tracking down terrorists, or at least ordering others to do so.  Mr. Perez did not get the memo.  Neither, apparently, did his inept and ideological boss, Eric Holder.

October 22, 2011        Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  President Obama's numbers continue to dccline.  Gallup reports the president's worst quarter since inauguration:

PRINCETON, NJ -- President Barack Obama's 11th quarter in office was the worst of his administration, based on his quarterly average job approval ratings. His 41% approval average is down six percentage points from his 10th quarter in office, and is nearly four points below his previous low of 45% during his seventh quarter.

These results are based on Gallup Daily tracking from July 20-Oct. 19, 2011. During this time, Obama's approval rating ranged narrowly between 38% and 43% for all but a few days of the quarter. The 38% approval ratings, registered on several occasions, are the lowest of his presidency to date.

And Rasmussen's news will also bring no joy to the White House:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 20% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -23...

...Overall, 42% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's job performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) at least somewhat disapprove.

COMMENT:  These numbers are being driven primarily by the economy.  The problem for Republicans, and it's a continuing one, is that, when matched head-to-head against specific Republican candidates, the president holds his own or even wins.  It shows, once again, that the GOP must do more to advance its own brand, and not depend on the weakness of Obama.  Statistically weak presidents have been re-elected before, as President Dewey found out in 1948.

October 22, 2011     Permalink

OCTOBER 21,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:10 P.M. ET:

DIDN'T ANYONE NOTICE? – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has canceled a scheduled speech at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School because of threats from the Occupy movement and its allies that he would be harassed and interrupted.  These movements claim to represent "99%" of the people, yet the House Majority Leader, who actually does represent people – the kind who vote by secret ballot – cannot freely speak at an American university.  So much for democracy.  We await expressions of outrage by the Penn faculty.  I suspect we'll be waiting a long time.

CRACKPOTS – We reported earlier on Justice Department plans to revamp the training of FBI agents and others to excise material "offensive" to militant Muslim groups.  Now we learn that these groups had a cheerleading session with Tom Perez, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division.  Perez, a hard leftist, listened to serious requests that criticism of Islam be declared illegal in the United States and a violation of the Constitution.  While Perez made no promises, his record should make us concerned that he will try to satisfy these individuals if he can.  When Obama took office, we were cautioned by some wise observers not to look that much at Cabinet-level appointments, bur rather at middle-level appointments, like Perez.  These are the people who actually make policy, and Obama has many middle-level appointees on the way-out left.

THE BAN GROWS – Fox News is reporting that the banning of Halloween from schools is growing throughout the United States.  Excuses for the ban reflect the usual left-wing thinking that many teachers and principals were subjected to at universities and teachers' colleges.  Halloween "excludes" new citizens upon whom we are "imposing" our traditions.  Halloween is "unfair" to kids who don't have costumes.  (Ever think of having local parents volunteer to donate costumes?)  We on our side simply fail to realize the enormity of the damage our educational institutions have done in the past generation, populated as they are by the intellectual leftovers from the 1960s.  What our kids learn in school will affect national policy 20 years down the line.  It's a chilling thought.

REMEMBER HIM? – Bill Ayers, the radical "educator" from Chicago, former Weatherman and preacher of violence, and onetime mentor to a young politician named Barack Obama, is now denouncing Obama for, among other things, the drone attack that killed an Al Qaeda leader in Yemen, who also was an American citizen.  Having Ayers denounce him is probably the best thing that's happened to Obama in a long time.  Mr. Ayers apparently believes that Americans don't have the right to defend themselves against Al Qaeda.  Or perhaps he feels we must wait for more Americans to be murdered before taking action.

October 21, 2011       Permalink

MONEY TALKING – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:   The Dems may be down, but they're sure bringing in the cash.  Money is called the mother's milk of politics.  If so, the milk cans are piling up at Democratic National Headquarters.  From The Politico:

Despite being in the minority, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised its GOP counterpart for the third straight month, bringing in nearly double the cash of the National Republican Congressional Committee in September.

The House Democratic campaign arm raised over $6.6 million to the NRCC’s $3.8 million, according to financial filings released Thursday.

Democrats are 25 seats in the minority, but their September cash edge over the newly empowered House Republicans continues a surprising trend. Over the course of the year, the DCCC has outraised the NRCC $47 million to $44 million.

The NRCC maintains a $12.2 million to $9.5 million cash on hand lead over the DCCC.

And there some strange quirks in fundraising for specific races.  Consider:

BOSTON — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is raking in millions from out-of-state donors even as incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown is increasingly relying on local supporters.

Warren’s campaign spokesman said Thursday that nearly 70 percent of the $3.1 million that has flowed into Warren’s campaign account during the past three months has come from outside Massachusetts.

That’s compared to Brown who has raised $1.55 million in the same time period, with just 37 percent coming from out of state, according to his spokesman.

COMMENT:  The national Dems want desperately to take that seat back from Scott Brown.  That was Ted Kennedy's seat, and the Dems believe they have ownership rights.   How dare some election disrupt the natural order of things.

Elizabeth Warren will give Brown a run for his (limited) money.  It's a heavily Democratic state, and Warren is far more effective than the candidate Brown defeated for the seat, Martha Coakley.  Watch this race carefully.   It should be a Republican year next year, but Massachusetts could be a heartbreaker.

October 21, 2011       Permalink 

DISGRACEFUL, OUTRAGEOUS, UNACCEPTABLE – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  One day after we get Gaddafi, the president's own Justice Department announces a kamikaze step that will seriously compromise, if not paralyze, our efforts to root out home-grown terrorists.  You have to read this twice to believe it.  From the Daily Caller:

Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday that the Obama administration was pulling back all training materials used for the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam that some Muslim groups have claimed are offensive.

“I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school.

The move comes after complaints from advocacy organizations including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and others identified as Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the 2004 Holy Land Foundation terror fundraising trial.

In a Wednesday Los Angeles Times op-ed, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) president Salam al-Marayati threatened the FBI with a total cutoff of cooperation between American Muslims and law enforcement if the agency failed to revise its law enforcement training materials.

Maintaining the training materials in their current state “will undermine the relationship between law enforcement and the Muslim American community,” al-Marayati wrote.

Multiple online sources detail MPAC’s close alignment with CAIR.

This is utterly sickening.  The United States Government goes out of its way to stress the distinction between law-abiding Muslims and those planning attacks against the United States.  The bottom line is that the overwhelming number of terror attempts are made by radical Muslims.  Just yesterday two radical Muslims were convicted in Minneapolis of funneling money to terror groups in Somalia.  And get this:

In his op-ed, Al-Marayati demanded that the Justice Department and the FBI “issue a clear and unequivocal apology to the Muslim American community” and “establish a thorough and transparent vetting process in selecting its trainers and materials.”

Specifically, al-Marayati called for a new “interagency task force” to review the training materials — a task force including representatives of the Islamist organizations the FBI is tasked with monitoring.

Are we serious here?  That's like having members of the Ku Klux Klan serve as advisers to the agents investigating Klan activities.  That's like inviting the KGB to examine our investigation of its spying in the United States. 

This is complete madness.  Our Justice Department, under Eric Holder, seems to be in its knee-jerk left-wing mode.  The professional Muslim organizations should be grateful for how restrained this country has been in the years after 9-11.  The demand that the government apologize to the Muslim commity is outrageous. 

I cannot imagine a Republican Justice Department buckling before these threats and demands.

October 21, 2011       Permalink

KEEPING OUR EYE ON THE BALL – AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  There's hoopla over Muammar, and the economy is in the tank.  It's understandable that many Americans are taking their eye off the Iranian ball.  That is unfortunate, and dangerous, as Reuters notes:

Iran plans to soon start moving nuclear material to an underground site for the pursuit of
sensitive atomic activities, diplomatic sources say, a move likely to add to Western fears about Tehran's intentions.

Yeah, I'd say so.

They said a first batch of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) -- material which is fed into machines used to refine uranium -- would be transferred to the Fordow site near the holy city of Qom in preparation for launching enrichment work there.

Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, Iran's stated aim, or provide material for bombs if processed to a higher degree, which the West suspects is its ultimate goal.

COMMENT:  All the other problems of the region pale by comparison to the possibility of the Iranian mullahs getting an atomic bomb.  That will change the power equation dramatically and allow the Iranians to engage in even more reckless behavior, knowing they have something we rightfully fear.

Even the thought that the Iranians may give a nuke or two to a terror group, or sail one into an American harbor, will change the way we defend ourselves and use our intelligence assets.  But we just aren't paying enough attention.

October 21, 2011        Permalink

US WARNS ON LIBYA – AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  There are still celebrations over the timely passing of Muammar Gaddafi, but Washington is warning that tough days in Libya lie ahead.  From Fox:

U.S. officials and analysts cautioned Thursday that western nations must continue to keep a close eye on Libya following the death of strongman Muammar Qaddafi, with the transition to democracy still in flux, "extremist elements" on the prowl and potentially thousands of weapons on the loose.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who just two days earlier had expressed hope that Qaddafi would be captured or killed so the Libyan people would not have to "fear" him, told Fox News on Thursday that the country still has a tough road ahead.

And...

...a U.S. official told Fox News that those involved with the operation have to be "careful that what comes next" isn't worse than Qaddafi. The challenge, the official said, is ensuring "extremist elements" within the anti-Qaddafi forces don't take control and allow the country to become yet another safe haven for terrorists or a source of black-market weapons.

The U.S. has been on alert in recent weeks over unsecured weapons in the wake of Qaddafi's ouster -- particularly 20,000 shoulder-launched missiles.

Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said securing the weapons should be a "very urgent priority" right now.

"This is certainly not the end of the struggle. It's the end of Qaddafi and that's a good thing," he said.

COMMENT:  The warnings are correct.  The "Arab spring" can easily turn into an Arab winter, or a long hot summer.  Egypt, where we forced out a pro-American authoritarian leader, seems to be drifting into nowhere, with the Christian minority under attack and the military engaging in pretty standard abuses.

Libya has an Al Qaeda element, and missiles missing from the Libyan arsenal have been reported in the Gaza Strip.

It's the Mideast.  Not a real place.

October 21, 2011     Permalink