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SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE - TWO MORE DAYS!

DAY 20

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SEPTEMBER 24,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:43 P.M. ET:

CAIN WINS FLORIDA STRAW POLL – Herman Cain was the surprise winner today in the Florida straw poll.  Cain got 37% of the vote, easily defeating Rick Perry, with 15% and Mitt Romney, with 14%.   This is a clear slap in the face to those two "frontrunners," Perry and Romney.  "Experts" had predicted that Perry would win easily, but his shaky debate performance Thursday night clearly had an impact.  We shouldn't attack too much importance to these straw polls, which don't really reflect the electorate, but the lack of power by the frontrunners has to tell us something.

INTO THE ALLEGED VACUUM – Supposedly informed sources say that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will decide in about a week whether to run for president.  It is widely felt that Rick Perry has created a vacuum at the top with his less-than-thrilling campaign thus far, giving a chance to someone else.  Christie is a darling of big-money donors and conservatives.  I have little enthusiasm for a Christie candidacy, which so many are anticipating with such great excitement.  Remember that Rick Perry was eliciting the same reaction only a month ago.  There's a reason why the term "flavor of the month" is so widely used in politics.

IT WENT TO HIS HEAD – Palestinian "President" Mahmoud Abbas was wildly applauded at the UN by the usual suspects Friday, a mixture of Islamic states, third world shadows of states, and other fellow travelers, and immediately went home to reject a proposal by the so-called "quartet" (U.S., EU, Russia, and UN) to get peace negotiations started again.  The quartet, which is trying to move the peace process forward, did not meet all of Abbas's demands.  Israel has informally accepted the quartet proposal.  The international left and trendy journalists will side with Abbas, however, no matter how rigid or ridiculous he becomes.

September 24, 2011     Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:

In the business of selling sentiments, there's a card for everything, from traditional occasions to unique needs: cards with sound, cards for holidays, cards for losing a tooth.  But losing a job?  Yes, now there's a card for that too.  Hallmark recently rolled out a new line of layoff greeting cards. Stores have a specific section for job loss and recession humor, offering words of support and encouragement. With the unemployment rate at nine percent, the company says customers called-in the need.  One card reads "Don't think of it as losing your job. Think of it as a time out between stupid bosses."

I have an idea:  How about you readers sending us your suggestions for a card for Barack Obama, to be used when he loses his job next year.  I'll print the best ones.  This could be fun.  Send to comments@urgentagenda.com

LOST IN SPACE – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  I realize that reader opinions vary on this, but I, for one, am appalled at what Obama is doing with the space program.   Aside from the scientific and defense benefits that we've derived from the program, it is a symbol – a spectacular one – of American greatness and leadership. 

That symbol is fading, and some of the greatest names associated with the program are outraged:

The first and last men to walk upon the moon have testified at a Congressional hearing that NASA is a national disgrace.

The US space program is "embarrassing and unacceptable," said Neil Armstrong, who on July 21, 1969, first set foot on the surface of the earthly companion that, in his testimony, he referred to as Luna.

"Today we are on a path of decay," testified fellow ex-astronaut Eugene Cernan, who said goodbye to Luna on December 14, 1972, bringing the curtain down on the US Apollo program.

Being 81 and 77 years old, repectively, and having achieved much in their careers, Armstrong and Cernan have nothing to prove nor favor to curry – and their comments reflected that freedom.

"Our choices are to lead," Armstrong said, "to try to keep up, or to get out of the way. A lead, however earnestly and expensively won, once lost, is nearly impossible to regain."

"Now is the time to overrule this Administration's pledge to mediocrity," said Cernan.

Armstrong decried NASA's downward spiral. "We will have no American access to, and return from, low Earth orbit and the International Space Station for an unpredictable length of time in the future," he said. "For a country that has invested so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this condition is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable."

Cernan also lambasted NASA for losing its way. Referring to the "space race" of the 1960s, when the US competed with the then–Soviet Union, he said: "As unimaginable as it seems, we have now come full circle and ceded our leadership role in space back to the same country, albeit with a different name, that spurred our challenge five decades ago."

Cernan was also clear about whom he blamed for what he sees as the current dismal state of affairs, citing "NASA and the present Administration's now obvious agenda to dismantle a space program that has been five decades in the making."

COMMENT:  Pretty pathetic, yes?  Did you ever think we would come to this?  But the people running the country right now, and their worshippers in the press, have no problem with American decline.  They think we're a dangerous country that should be restrained.  As for space, let someone else do it, as we keep promoting "green" jobs that don't exist.

Do you ever wonder what happens to those skilled NASA engineers and technicians who are laid off?  Those talents are being lost, possibly forever.

Who will pay?  Our children.

September 24, 2011       Permalink

UNFAIR – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  We've been a bit down on Rick Perry, as readers know, assessing his debate performances as marginal and his policy positions as vague.  However, I've come to think that some of the criticism of his Thursday night comments, coming from some Republicans, is a bit unfair.

I'm referring to Perry's immigration stance, now the subject of a minor firestorm within the party.  On immigration, Perry, normally quite conservative, is moderate.  He, with the overwhelming support of both parties in the legislature, initiated a program giving children of illegal immigrants to Texas the privilege of in-state tuition to the state's public colleges and universities.  Some are outraged by this.

Perry tried to explain, not well, that these are the children of illegals.  They have broken no law, even though their parents did.  It is a fundamental of the Judeo-Christian ethic that we do not visit the sins of the parents upon the children.  Perry explained that these children, some of whom may well have been born in the United States, are not being deported, and want to be educated, and that it is in society's best interest to educate them.

Perry is fundamentally correct, although he may have gone about the issue in a heavy-handed way.  It may well strike many as unfair that the child of an illegal immigrant gets a tuition break, whereas a legal Hispanic-American kid from next-door Oklahoma, wanting to go to a Texas school, pays full price.  That's another discussion, however. 

Governor Perry represents a large Hispanic constituency, and he shows respect for that constituency.  Although we have a right to be deeply disturbed by the legal violation inherent in illegal immigration, we aren't going to deport the 12 million illegals who are here.  Let's be blunt:  Part of our southwestern economy would collapse without them.  Yes, they broke the law, and some penalty must be assessed, but everyone really knows there will not be a mass deportation.  Preventing new illegality, yes.  Sending boatloads back – it's just not going to happen. 

And so Perry has tried to make the best of it by insuring that the children of illegals are prepared for citizenship.  He was wrong to say Thursday night that anyone who opposes his tuition plan has no heart.  That's bomb throwing.  But I know what he was trying to say, that law enforcement must have a common-sense, compassionate component.  And conservatives, who believe in conserving the idealistic and religious values of this society, should approach this subject in a serious, reflective way. 

Illegal immigration is a serious issue, and should be dealt with by serious policy proposals.  Perry is at least trying, and deserves credit for the balance he's trying to strike.

September 24, 2011       Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:13 A.M. ET:  The Republicans have now had three televised debates, giving at least part of the electorate a glimpse at who might be the GOP candidate in 2012.  Given this, where does Obama now stand in public approval.  Scott Rasmussen, as of this morning:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 21% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21...

...Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's job performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) at least somewhat disapprove.

And Gallup:   Gallup has 40% approving of the president's performance, and 52% disapproving.  Given the margin of error, these polls are pretty close.  We favor Rasmussen, as we've noted before, because he polls likely voters, whereas Gallup is polling adults, or people claiming to be so.  Likely voters are the most accurate measure of what an election, if held today, would look like.

We caution, though, that approval is not the end-all.  The president still does quite well against Republicans who are named, although Mitt Romney has come out slightly ahead of him in recent surveys.  I'm guessing Romney's numbers will improve somewhat, based on his debate performance the last time out.

September 24, 2011     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 23,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:45 P.M. ET:

CHRISTIE? – The big political buzz tonight is that Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is reconsidering his decision not to run for president, at least according to some sources.  Christie is a conservative favorite because of his budget-cutting and confrontational attitude toward anyone who disagrees with him.  Frankly, I hope he doesn't run.  We'll be discussing this at Urgent Agenda if the story turns out to have legs, but I will argue that Christie, despite doing some good things in New Jersey, just isn't on a presidential level. 

PERRY'S ORDEAL – It may be unfair, but the internet has been savaging Rick Perry all day long over his debate performance last night.  This is what happens when someone enters a presidential race with such huge expectations, and then disappoints.  There are many fine things about Perry, but he doesn't seem able to bring them out, and he's now had three debate chances.  People envision him debating Barack Obama, today's version of Slick Willy, and the image isn't good.  Perry will get several more debate chances, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Mitt Romney rise in the polls, despite the general lack of enthusiasm for him.

AH, REHABILITATION – A new USA/Gallup survey reports that a majority of Americans think Obama is about the same or worse than George W. Bush as president.  Thus, the rehabilitation of Bush has begun.  Obama performed especially poorly among independents, who are a decisive vote in any presidential election.  I'd love to see a poll matching Obama with Reagan.  Now just how do you think that would turn out?

THEATER OF THE ABSURD - The Palestinians presented their case for UN recognition of Palestinian statehood, bypassing negotiations with Israel, at the General Assembly today, which whooped it up in support of the idea.  Among the whoopers were such notable democracies as Syria and Egypt, and third-world groupies like South Africa.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the General Assembly the "theater of the absurd," and he's right.  It's a place where dictators are loved and democracies suspected.  It is dominated by Muslim states, old Communist states, goofball regimes like Venezuela and Cuba, and third-world ramshackle countries that work hard to stay third world.  Not a place for respectable people, although the food in the cafeteria is supposed to be pretty good.

September 23, 2011      Permalink

SCIENCE LESSON – AT 11:07 A.M. ET:  Readers of this daily effort know that we periodically discuss "climate change," and have expressed some skepticism about the theology of the Church of the Global Warming.  Part of our doubts revolve around the arrogance and certainty of the global warming "community" and its boosters, including the angry Al Gore and the increasingly daffy Bill Clinton.  Science is not about certainty, but about questioning.  There is no such thing as "settled science," although the Warmers tell us there is.

Now comes a remarkable science story that illustrates the difference between real scientists and trendy hangers-on.  I rarely use the term "required reading," but this is required reading, a well-reported story by Bloomberg/Businessweek:

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- A neutrino beam was measured as traveling faster than the speed of light, appearing to break the limit set by Albert Einstein in 1905.

The data come as a “complete surprise” and more research is needed before the results are verified, said Sergio Bertolucci, research director at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Please note the immediate call for "more research."  These are scientists, not strutters. 

Neutrinos, subatomic particles fired from CERN’s Geneva base to a laboratory 730 kilometers (454 miles) away in Gran Sasso, Italy, were clocked at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light, the organization said. The tests first produced unusual results last year, with scientists spending the ensuing months trying to rule out any flaw in their methods that could have skewed the numbers.

The skeptics are presented front and center:

“To me as a theoretician it screams systemic error,” Roberto Trotta, an astrophysicist at Imperial College, London, said in a telephone interview. “There is probably something in the experiment that the experimenters still don’t understand.”

And what comes next?

Now the task is to replicate CERN’s experiment, possibly in Japan where there are several neutrino detectors, the most complex piece of equipment required, Trotta said. Until then, it’s too early to draw conclusions, he said.

And...

CERN’s findings fit with those of a 2007 experiment by the University of Minnesota, Subir Sarkar, a physicist at Oxford University in the U.K. They also chime with data recorded in 1987, when Japanese observers detected neutrinos from an exploding star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy visible from the earth’s southern hemisphere, hours before the supernova was seen by an amateur astrologer in New Zealand, he said.

“The implications are that Einstein’s special relativity is wrong and that’s earth-shattering stuff,” Trotta said.

Still, the most likely explanation is a mistake by CERN, not Einstein, Trotta said. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof,” he said.

COMMENT:  Please read that last quote again:  "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."  They certainly do...except in the matter of "climate change." 

This is fascinating stuff.  Are we present at a great new moment in physics?  Or will these experiments be shown to be flawed?  That is what science is about, not projecting climate 75 years down the line and asserting that anyone who disagrees is the equivalent of a racist or a Holocaust denier. 

September 23, 2011     Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:53 A.M. ET: 

From Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times:   "We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad."  That's what the president of the United States flat-out said Thursday during what was supposed to be a photo op to sell his jobs plan next to an allegedly deteriorating highway bridge.  A railroad between continents? A railroad from, say, New York City all the way across the Atlantic to France? Now, THAT would be a bridge!  It's yet another humorous gaffe by the Harvard Law graduate, overlooked by most media for whatever reason. Like Obama saying Abraham-Come-Lately Lincoln was the founder of the Republican Party. Or Navy corpseman. Or the Austrian language. Fifty-seven states. The president of Canada. Etc.

But he's our Barack, and we must not question.  He has come to save us.  So he doesn't know the difference between intercontinental and transcontinental.  What does that have to do with Muslim outreach?  English is the oppressor's language anyway.

A STUNNING ACCUSATION – AT 9:36 A.M. ET:  Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, who's about to retire, has come right out and said that Pakistan, our "ally," aided a recent attack on the United States embassy in Afghanistan.  From WaPo:

The Obama administration for the first time Thursday openly asserted that Pakistan was indirectly responsible for specific attacks against U.S. troops and installations in Afghanistan, calling a leading Afghan insurgent group “a veritable arm” of the Pakistani intelligence service.

Last week’s attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and a Sept. 10 truck bombing that killed five Afghans and wounded 77 NATO troops were “planned and conducted” by the Pakistan-based Haqqani network “with ISI support,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The ISI is the Pakistani military’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

“The government of Pakistan and most especially the Pakistani army and ISI” have chosen “to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy” to maintain leverage over Afghanistan’s future, Mullen testified during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta also testified.

Mullen’s statement represented a sharp break with a long-standing administration policy of publicly playing down Pakistan’s official support for Taliban insurgents who operate from havens within its borders. U.S. officials have typically described Pakistan as a troublesome but valuable partner in the struggle against terrorism.

The testimony capped a week of increasingly critical administration statements in the wake of the recent attacks and reflected a rising conviction that a new strategy is needed.

COMMENT:  Pakistan is a nuclear power.  We worry about where its loyalties are, and how well its nuclear weapons are protected.  This is not an encouraging report from Mike Mullen. 

We're trapped on this one.  On the one hand, we need Pakistan in the fight against terror.  On the other, most Pakistanis don't care for us.  Pakistan is a Muslim counry living in, maybe, the 10th century. 

It's the nuclear weapons I worry about most.  Nothing compares to that threat.  If Pakistan tips in the wrong direction, those nukes could get loose, or the Pakistani nuclear program could be infiltrated, resulting in a theft of nuclear materials by terrorist groups.  A nuclear weapon doesn't have to sit at the top of a missile.  It could be a crude device sailed into an American harbor and set off by a suicide squad.

We don't live in a safe world, and some in Washington are talking about drastic cuts in our military budget.

September 23, 2011       Permalink

AMERICANS AND THE MEDIA – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:  A new, well-done poll by Pew Research Center has bad news for the media.  In increasing numbers, Americans don't trust journalism. 

This is an important poll.  We believe here that press bias played a substantial role in the 2008 election.  If Americans are becoming more discerning about the press, the impact of that bias might be lessened next year.  Might be.  From The Politico: 

Record numbers of Americans consider the news media to be “immoral,” “inaccurate,” and “biased,” a new poll says.

A plurality of Americans, 42 percent, said that the press was “immoral,” compared to 38 percent who viewed the news media as “moral” - a record high according to an annual Pew Research poll on the media.

Americans were evenly divided on whether the news media helps “protect democracy” or “hurts democracy,” with 42 percent for each. The number of people who thought the media hurts democracy was another record high – in the mid-1980s, about twice as many said that news organizations protect democracy.

Americans also believe that news stories are often inaccurate - with 66 percent thinking that, compared with 34 percent in 1985. Only 25 percent of those surveyed think news organizations “get the facts straight.”

And when reporters get the facts wrong, 72 percent of Americans said that they “try to cover up their mistakes” rather than admitting them, yet another record high, according to Pew. Only 18 percent said that reporters were willing to admit their mistakes.

While majorities of Americans said that the news media remained highly professional (57 percent) and care about the quality of their work (68 percent), a historically large percentage of respondents thought that reporters were “not professional (32 percent) and “don’t care about how good a job they do” (31 percent).

By a large margin, respondents said that reporters were “politically biased in their reporting,” with a record high 63 percent agreeing with this view and only 25 percent disagreeing.

And a new Gallup poll reflects the belief that the press tilts leftward:

A significant majority of Americans, 60 percent, also perceive bias in the media. 47 percent said that the media is too liberal, and 13 percent said that that it was too conservative.

Americans have perceived more liberal bias in the media than conservative bias by a large margin since at least 2002, according to Gallup.

COMMENT:  I continue to see liberal bias, although I do think many journalists are aware of the awful reporting of 2008 and are trying to get things reasonably straight.  The most influential newspaper, however, is The New York Times, which is under firm liberal management.  Its regular news stories about Rick Perry, tilted heavily against him, reflect the same tired formula The Times disgraced itself with in 2008 – go after the Republican, and leave Barack alone.

September 23, 2011       Permalink

THE DEBATE – ROMNEY OVER PERRY – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  It's pretty clear from opinion across the intercut that Romney defeated Perry in last night's debate.  We turn to superb analyst Michael Barone, in the Washington Examiner:

Rick Perry was not considered, by himself or by just about anyone else, a potential presidential candidate. His performance in last night's Fox News/Google debate in Orlando showed why.

Perry has been leading all the other Republican candidates in every national poll taken since he announced his candidacy on Aug. 13, upstaging the Iowa straw poll that Michele Bachmann won the same day. But in the debate, he showed himself still unprepared to answer some obvious questions and unsteady in his responses to attacks from others.

And...

Perry has spent 10 years as governor of Texas, and only a few weeks preparing to be president of the United States. He still has to think about his answers, and he has seemed fatigued in the second half of all three debates he has entered.

Romney, by contrast, has been campaigning for the presidency for more than four years, and is so trained up that he can seemingly go on autopilot when answering most questions. The results is a smooth, practiced delivery that makes him seem more presidential at this point in the campaign.

COMMENT:  However, it isn't over.  Perry still leads Romney in GOP polls, although I'd want to see if anything shifted after last night's winning performance by Romney.  And Perry is a learner.

Also, I must say this:  Perry has a certain warmth that Romney, very much the executive technocrat, often lacks.  One might disagree with his defense of his program to give children of illegals tuition breaks in state universities, but he spoke from the heart in pointing out that they had, themselves, done nothing wrong, and, like all young people, deserve to be educated. 

Perry got hurt last night by giving vague, hesitant answers.  He needs rehearsal, and he must do what Sarah Palin failed to do – learn the kind of details that make Romney look in command. 

September 23, 2011     Permalink