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SEPTEMBER 6,  2011

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

NEW VIDEO GAME – A new video game makes its entry into the marketplace, heralding a fresh era of political civility.  It's called "Tea Party Zombies Must Die."  The object of the deeply intellectual game is to destroy zombies who look like conservative figures, like Sarah Palin or Fox News analyst Brit Hume.  You can also shoot up the headquarters of Fox News.  We await comment on this from leading Democrats, the White House, and all those who lectured conservatives after the Tucson shootings.

CALIFORNIA, HERE I...NO, I'M NOT COMIN' – A new poll shows California voters increasingly downcast about the direction of the country.  At the same time, Californians of both parties are hardening their positions and urging leaders not to compromise their ideological positions.  Sounds like Student Government to me.  And despite the mess in Washington, Obama has the highest approval rating (50%) of any politician included in the poll.  Wasn't this the state where Ronald Reagan was governor?  Or was that another galaxy?

SHAKEUP – The Michele Bachmann campaign staff is being shaken up.  Ed Rollins, a respected Republican figure, is leaving his position in charge of Bachmann's day-to-day campaigning, but will stay on as an adviser.  His deputy is leaving altogether.  Rollins conceded what everyone already knows, that Bachmann hasn't been able to capitalize on her win in the Iowa straw poll because of Rick Perry's entry into the race.  Rollins also concedes that Bachmann is now the "third candidate" behind the leading pair of Romney and Perry.  Unless Perry self-destructs, I suspect Bachmann will not rise higher.

WHICH COUNTRY WILL BE THE LUCKY WINNER? – London's Telegraph reports that intensive talks are underway to allow Colonel Gaddafi to leave Libya and seek asylum in a sympathetic country.  (Or, of course, he could be made a professor at the Kennedy School of Government.  Can you imagine the party invitations?)  The Telegraph further reports that convoys carrying gold, cash and members of Gaddafi's inner circle traveled across the Libyan border in Niger earlier today, setting off the diplomatic scramble to resolve Gaddafi's housing problems.

September 6, 2011       Permalink

MILITARY GENIUS AT WORK – AT 8:57 P.M. ET:   President Obama has apparently blindsided his generals by approving a drastic reduction in American forces in Iraq.  There is substantial anger in the military.  From Fox:

The Obama administration has decided to drop the number of U.S. troops in Iraq at the end of the year down to 3,000, marking a major downgrade in force strength, multiple sources familiar with the inner workings and decisions on U.S. troop movements in Iraq told Fox News.

Senior commanders are said to be livid at the decision, which has already been signed off by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Panetta, touring sites Tuesday in advance of the Sept. 11 10th commemoration, insisted "no decision has been made" on the number of troops to stay in Iraq.

"That obviously will be the subject of negotiations with the Iraqis and as a result of those negotiations. As I said no decision has been made of what the number will be," he said.

Currently, about 45,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq. The generals on the ground had requested a reduced number of troops remaining in Iraq at the end of the year, but there was major pushback about "the cost and the political optics" of keeping that many in Iraq. The military's troop-level request was then reduced to 10,000.
Commanders said they could possibly make that work "in extremis," in other words, meaning they would be pushing it to make that number work security-wise and manpower-wise.

Now, sources confirm that the administration has pushed the Pentagon to cut the number even lower, and commanders are concerned for the safety of the U.S. troops who would remain there.

"We can't secure everybody with only 3,000 on the ground nor can we do what we need to with the Iraqis," one source said.

COMMENT:  Some pundits are speculating that domestic politics controlled this decision, a desire not to offend the leeft wing of the Democratic Party, which wants all American troops out of Iraq.  (Sometimes I think they want all American troops out of America as well.) 

That's probably correct.  There doesn't seem to be any legitimate military reason for such a drastic cut, but this will make the Obama base happy, and give them something to cheer about.

September 6, 2011        Permalink

NOT MUCH OPTIMISM ON THE STREET – AT 10:33 A.M. ET:  Wall Street isn't exactly saluting the return from Labor Day.  Right now the Dow is down 272 points, or 2.42%.  The S&P 500 is in even worse shape, down 2.63%.

Wall Street, of course, is only an indicator.  It isn't the real Main Street economy, but it does create a psychological effect on the nation that can be stimulating or devastating.  In the current case, there's plenty of devastation to go around.  Aside from domestic problems, the markets are looking at the mess in Europe, where decades of welfare state spending have led to a debt crisis. 

There is also a mindset building that our serious economic woes will go on for years, and that results are not guaranteed.  The only way we'll get out of our doldrums is through an expanding economy, and you can't have an expanding economy when no one has any confidence, and few are willing to take any risks.

Community organizers tend not to be very good at dealing with stuff like this.

September 6, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 10:10 A.M. ET:

TRIPOLI, Libya – For the past two weeks, there have been jubilant parades in the streets as opposition fighters celebrate the capture of the capital and the dawn of a new era in this oil-rich North African state.  Away from the celebrations, there are some in the city who fear for the future and say they miss the stability and security of life during Moammar Gadhafi's 42 years in power.  "We lived in peace before. We had money. We had everything," Akram Mohammed Al Garbarji, 30, said as he waited to withdraw money from a bank in downtown Tripoli. "I love Gadhafi; I will die for Gadhafi."

Yeah, but if he dies for Gadhafi the bank won't let him withdraw his money because he couldn't present his photo I.D..  I guess he didn't figure that.  Only in the Mideast do people pine for the likes of Gadhafi.  And the rebel movements, which have our initial sympathy, have often turned out to be stalking horses for governments worse than the ones they're seeking to replace.  Great place, the Mideast.  Make sure to have a return ticket.   

BUMBLING BARACK – AT 9:22 A.M. ET:  What is it about Obama?  He was such a smooth candidate in 2008, but, as president, he messes up every time he opens his mouth.

He's going to give a major speech about jobs on Thursday to a joint session of Congress.  That's a big deal in Washington.  How often, as a friend of mine asks, does a president address Congress outside the State of the Union message?  So, you would think the president would try to build support from both sides of the aisle before the speech, demonstrating that, as president, he's above petty politics.

But Barack Obama has never been above petty politics.  He is petty politics.  The Chicago clubhouse all the way.  Consider his warm embrace of the Republican Party in a speech just yesterday, as the Washington Post reports:

DETROIT — Surrounded by thousands of labor union members chanting “four more years,” President Obama began a high-stakes campaign to jump-start the struggling economy with a broad range of job-creation programs. The coming proposals, he said, will show whether Republicans in Congress “can put country before party.”

Oh, that's just swell.  Question the patriotism of Republicans in Congress.  That ought to get them applauding when the president makes his grand entrance.  If a Republican president said that about Dems in Congress he'd, within five seconds, be labeled a modern-day McCarthyite.

And get this for nerve:

Obama, who is scheduled to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, told the Labor Day rally of auto workers, health-care employees and school teachers that he will present a far-reaching jobs plan aimed at winning bipartisan support.

He's already questioned the Republicans' patriotism, and now he says he'll present a plan to win their support.  Does anyone read these presidential speeches before they're delivered?

And the real message:

“But we’re not going to wait for them,” he added. “We're going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters, see if congressional Republicans can put country before party. We’re going to give them a plan and say, ‘Do you want to create jobs? . . . Show us what you’ve got.’ ”

Translated into English:  We know we can't get anything through Congress, so we're going to do as much through executive action as possible. 

We'll be fair, of course, and wait to evaluate the president's ideas after his Thursday speech.  But one would think that, if he actually had any economic ideas, they'd have surfaced long before now. 

While the speech is anticipated, there is virtually no confidence that I can detect that the president will actually say anything significant.  The economy will react appropriately.

September 6, 2011       Permalink

THE TRUTH EMERGES – AT 9:10 A.M. ET:  When General David Petraeus was asked to leave his four-star rank, put on civvies and become director of Central Intelligence, many Petraeus watchers were baffled.  Was this a promotion?  An inspired naming of a successful general to an agency that often needs better guidance...or were the Obamans trying to shut Petraeus up?

If you checked (c), the shut-up option, you may well be right, according to reporting out today.  From The Politico:

Despite overwhelming popularity in Congress, retired General David Petraeus will be sworn in privately Tuesday as the director of the CIA because the White House wants to lower his profile amid concerns that he could be a loose cannon in the administration.

“Silent is what some in the White House want the well-connected former four-star general to remain,” writes the Associated Press Tuesday, according to three former and current U.S. officials.

White House officials who disagreed with Petraeus on a counterinsurgency troop surge are concerned that the former four-star general will use his influence with the media and Capitol Hill to pursue policies at odds with their goals.

Look, let's also add the bottom line here:  The White House fears Petraeus, who could have resigned from the Army and sought the GOP presidential nomination, which he probably would have gotten.  He'd then be seen as a modern-day Eisenhower, who ended the Republican Party's 20-year absence from the White House when he won election in 1952. 

Petraeus, who retired last week after 37 years in the military, was confirmed as CIA chief by a resounding vote of 94-to-0, an overwhelming show of support from what has been a divided Senate.

Gen. Petraeus’ influence was seen when he helped to persuade President Barack Obama to increase troops in Afghanistan - similar to Petraeus’ successful counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq - over the doubts of other advisors, such as Vice President Joe Biden.

COMMENT:  I'm just speculating, but I suspect that Petraeus is heading for oblivion.   The Dems are not going to let this man breathe, let alone think.  They don't like military men to begin with, and they know that Petraeus is the most popular soldier of his time.

I wonder how long Petraeus will last before he realizes he's been sidelined.

September 6, 2011        Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  The political season unofficially starts today, and the president of the United States is, frankly, in poor political shape.  From the Washington Post:

Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high.

As part of a reinvigorated effort to regain momentum as he heads toward the 2012 election year, Obama traveled to Detroit on Monday for a Labor Day appearance that served as a prelude to his speech Thursday to a joint session of Congress in which he will unveil new proposals to create jobs.

The urgency for Obama to act is driven not just by the most recent unemployment report, which on Friday showed no job growth in August and the unemployment rate stuck at 9.1 percent, but also by the depth of the political hole in which the president finds himself. Even more than two-thirds of those who voted for Obama say things are badly off course.

I wonder what the other third are thinking.  Are we on course?

By this time in their presidencies, approval ratings for both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — who also suffered serious midterm setbacks during their first term — had settled safely above the 50 percent mark. Both then stayed in positive territory throughout their reelection campaigns.

However, there is no room for relaxation on our side:

Obama does, however, rate better than do congressional Republicans, his adversaries in recent, fierce confrontations on federal spending. Just 28 percent approve of the way Republicans in Congress are doing their job, and 68 percent disapprove, the worst spread for the GOP since summer 2008.

COMMENT:  This is more or less consistent with other polls we've seen. Indeed, Gallup has had approval of the president as low as 38%. 

However, most polls also show Mr. Obama either tied with or defeating potential Republican rivals.   Public discontent with a president doesn't always lead to his defeat...if the public thinks the other side is worse.  The Republican Party remains unpopular, and its candidate for president must rise above that.  An NBC/Wall /Street Journal poll out today reports:

...in a hypothetical general election contest, Obama leads Texas Gov. Rick Perry by five points, 47 percent to 42 percent. And he leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by one, 46 percent to 45 percent, though that margin is down five points since June.

But for the first time in the poll, more say they'd probably vote for a generic Republican candidate (44 percent) than say they'd probably vote for Obama (40 percent).

The headache is that this generic guy, whom everyone writes about, doesn't exist.  If he does exist, I wish he'd get his campaign together.

September 6, 2011     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 5,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:45 P.M. ET:

HE'S LOST HIS MOORINGS AGAIN – Onetime well-known filmmaker Michael Moore has asked for permission to visit Iran to attend a film festival.   Among other motives he gives in going to Iran, Moore says he wants to protest U.S. policy.  Apparently, Barack Obama isn't far enough left for him.  Moore has very little audience left here, but will undoubtedly pack 'em in at the Iranian cinema.  I say, let him go.  And let him stay if he wants to.

OUTRAGE IN BRITAIN – I've always felt there were two Britains, the Britain of Winston Churchill, which we love, and a lesser Britain, a product of the welfare state.  The second is often on ugly display.  There comes now the story of a British soldier who lost both his legs and an arm in Afghanistan.  So what does the nanny state do?  It puts this soldier, his intended wife, and their two children, in a tiny apartment on the sixth floor of a high rise.  The government told the trooper there's a five-year wait for better housing.  But London's Daily Mail reports that large homes go directly to asylum seekers.  Disgraceful.

UPDATE – This morning, in a story about crime, we reported that 31 people had been shot in New York this weekend.  Well, make that 46.  A city made very safe over the years, beginning with the inspired work of Rudy Giuliani, became a shooting gallery this past weekend.  Gunfire erupted today at the annual West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn, right near the area where Mayor Mike Bloomberg was marching.  Oh, and by the way, seven people were murdered this weekend in the president's home city of Chicago.  Notice the interest at the highest levels.

September 5, 2011     Permalink

A REMEMBRANCE – AT 5:38 P.M. ET:  This week we will mark the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.  A new structure is going up where the World Trade Center stood, and a memorial is part of that structure.  Reader Joseph J. Gallick refers us to an excellent video describing the memorial.  I urge you all to see it.  It's here:

http://tinyurl.com/3scth9b

I was struck by the fact that the memorial will honor all those killed on 9-11, in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United flight 93 crashed.  It will also honor those killed in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.  It was that attack that led to modernized security at the Trade Center, which saved many lives on September 11, 2001.

September 5, 2011     Permalink

SMOOTH ONE BY PERRY – AT 12:24 P.M. ET:  Republican frontrunner, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, cut short his campaign today to return to Texas to deal with the spreading wildfires.  It is a smart move on Perry's part, demonstrating responsibility to the job and placing it above politics.  From the Washington Examiner:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry surprised the organizers of today's Palmetto Freedom Forum by withdrawing from the event just hours before it is scheduled to begin. Put together by Sen. Jim DeMint, who is widely acknowledged as a kingmaker in the Republican race in South Carolina, the event, set for 3 p.m. today, will feature candidates Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich in an unconventional question-and-answer format with DeMint, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, and Princeton University professor Robert George.

According to several sources familiar with events, the chairman of Perry's campaign in South Carolina, former Republican party chief Katon Dawson, called organizers this morning to say that Perry needs to return to Texas to deal with quickly-spreading wildfires. Event organizers offered to move the schedule around -- the candidates were scheduled to speak in alphabetical order at the forum, which would have put Perry second-to-last -- and waited for Perry's response. The first definitive reports they heard on Perry's decision came from the media. In the meantime, Perry was participating in a town hall event in Myrtle Beach, S.C. organized by Rep. Tim Scott. Perry was scheduled to speak personally with DeMint at 11:15 a.m., at which time he would officially withdraw from the forum. Perry has a plane waiting in Myrtle Beach to return him to Texas.

COMMENT:  A Drudge headline earlier today read, "Texas on fire."  Maybe that influenced the decision.

The key question is whether Perry will now show up at the Reagan Library on Wednesday night for the first major, televised debate in which he's scheduled to take part.  The faithful will give Perry this one withdrawal today, to do his job as governor.  But attending the Reagan debate, after he's had a chance to return to Texas for two days, means a plane ride to California, and a quick flight back.  If he skips the Reagan Library, suspicions will rise that he's not ready for prime time. 

September 5, 2011     Permalink

RUBIO'S HIT – AT 11:32 A.M. ET:  Senator Marco Rubio of Florida gave a remarkable speech recently at the Reagan Library.  African-American journalist Star Parker reflects on it, in a column that has direct relevance to the horror story we reported just below.  From Townhall.com:

Senator Rubio took a bold step beyond looking at our problems just as an accountant.

He suggested that we cannot separate our budget from our culture. The culture of government has displaced the culture of personal responsibility.

I have been making the point for years regarding what the welfare state culture has done in our black communities. How it has created a permanent underclass, defined by family breakdown, sexual promiscuity, disease, and crime.

American culture has changed profoundly over these years that Americans have come to increasingly believe that government social engineering can solve life’s problems and challenges.

A snapshot of today’s American family shows how much things have changed, even compared to 1981 when President Reagan took office.

Since 1980, the percentage of babies in America born to unwed mothers has doubled, from 20 percent to 40 percent.

Fifty two percent of Americans over the age of 18 are married today, compared to 72 percent in 1960.

Among blacks, 44% of the population over 18 has never been married, compared to 17% in 1960.

Sixty four percent of American children today live in a home with two married parents, compared with 75 percent in 1980 and 87 percent in 1960.

And, according to the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of those between ages of 18 to 29 “agree marriage is becoming obsolete.”

We used to be a nation, as Senator Rubio pointed out, where parents raised and cared for children, then those children cared for their aging parents. Where neighbors cared for neighbors.

We might note that the welfare state idea is not an American invention but an import from Europe. We also might note that about 20 percent of Europeans attend church regularly, half that of Americans.

Europe is characterized today by low birth rates – so low that they are not replacing themselves – and high unemployment rates. The unemployment rate in France has hovered between 8 and 11 percent over the last 25 years.

We must wonder if even we can take on our fiscal problems, if traditional American family life can be restored, and if we believe it even matters.

It is to Senator Rubio’s considerable credit that he has stood up to argue that we must look at the picture of our nation in its entirety. That we cannot separate our budget matters and our attitude toward government from our overall culture and our personal behavior.

COMMENT:  Well said, and another reason why Marco Rubio should be advanced rapidly in the Republican Party.  He may be young, but he has wisdom beyond his years.  Barack Obama was also young when he ran for president, but he has the wisdom of a 20-year-old.

September 5, 2011       Permalink

ONE WEEKEND – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  One of the great accomplishments within the United States in recent decades has been the successful assault on crime in some of our large cities, inspired by the work of Rudy Giuliani and his police officials in New York.

The murder rate in New York in the years since Rudy took office in the early 90s is down 80%.  New York has become a remarkably safe city, and a successful one.  This has driven the left crazy, as the success came without groveling to every ethnic leader or pandering to the "socio-economic problems of inner-city peoples."  (I hope I have the lingo right.) 

But now we're having setbacks.  This has been one of the bloodiest weekends in recent New York history.  From the New York Post:

In one of the bloodiest weekends in recent city history, 31 people were brutally shot in roughly 48 hours this weekend -- including three kids at a house party-turned-shooting gallery in The Bronx.

25 people had been shot as of Sunday night, but by early Monday morning, six more people were shot in three separate incidents in Brooklyn.

Four people were shot at 12:45 a.m. at what appeared to be a barbecue on East 54th Street. One of the victims, 18-year-old Tyrief Gary, has died. The other three are in stable condition.

A man and a woman were each shot in the chest at 4:24 a.m. and 6 a.m., the first at Linden Boulevard and Nostrand Ave and the second at 57 Empire Boulevard. Both victims were taken to Kings County hospital where they're in critical condition.

Police sources believe the three shootings this morning are connected to the pre-dawn festivities leading up to today's West Indian Day parade. The traditional celebration, known as J'ouvert, has been the scene of numerous shootings in the past, although cops have had it under control in recent years.

New York's self-indulgent mayor, who's become more liberal with every passing hour, is not Rudy Giuliani.  He has the usual prescription to end the violence.

Calling the chilling violence "just unconscionable," Mayor Bloomberg demanded that the feds step up their efforts to get illegal weapons off the streets.

"We just cannot continue to have these guns in the hands of kids who don't understand the value of human life," he said.

No kidding, Bloomie.  But we know exactly where you're going – the next step will be to blame the gun manufacturers.  The fact is that the same gun manufacturers supply legal weapons to states with high gun ownership, like Vermont and New Hampshire, where the murder rate is tiny. 

Two dozen of the victims were shot in 13 incidents between 6 a.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. yesterday, authorities said.

More than half of those were wounded -- one fatally -- within a five-hour stretch, from 3 to 8 a.m. yesterday.
The 25th victim was shot at 9 a.m. yesterday.

The issue is culture.  We still have too many in this society, and especially in liberal cities like New York, who indulge the worst elements, who insist that their "culture" be "respected," instead of teaching these young people the right values. 

Yes, it is certainly true that illegal guns must be swept from the streets.  But the guns aren't firing themselves.

By the way, we not only have had this horrible weekend in New York, we've seen flash mobs in cities around the country, where gangs of "youths" invade stores, stealing anything they wish.  Please notice the silence from the White House and the Justice Department.  But DOJ had plenty of resources to raid a guitar company which may have been using improperly imported wood. 

I hope this weekend won't provide a vision of things to come.  But if it does, the man at the top, in Washington, who held a beer summit at the White House when one of his professorial friends felt insulted, had better start speaking up.

September 5, 2011     Permalink