SATURDAY,  APRIL 18,  2009

BULLETIN - AT 6:08 P.M. ET:  The United States, to its credit, will boycott the upcoming "Durban II" conference in Geneva:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will ''with regret'' boycott a U.N. conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting's final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said Saturday.

The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against U.S. participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who hoped that President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, would send an official delegation.

The administration had wanted to attend the April 20-25 meeting in Geneva, although it warned in late February it would not go unless significant changes were made to the draft text.

COMMENT:  Applause, applause.  The conference is a farce.  It has nothing to do with fighting racism.  It's dominated by some of the world's worst gangster regimes.  The president of Iran, that great fighter for freedom, will address the meeting when it opens Monday.

There will of course be the usual charges that this decision was "dictated" by the Israel lobby.  Well, cheers for the Israel lobby.  People have a right to petition the government, and they're certainly correct on this one.  Our participation would have been an embarrassment.  You may recall that the Bush administration walked out of "Durban I" in 2001, a conference that degenerated into an anti-freedom, anti-West, and anti-Semitic rant. 

Naturally, the usual suspects are appalled by this courageous move.  Marxist Congresswoman Barbara Lee, commissar of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the most left-leaning member of Congress, has registered her deep pain.  Human Rights Watch, which is nothing of the kind, is also anguished beyond words. 

The AP story identifies "human rights advocates" as upset by the decision.  The phrase is corrupt, and reflects lazy, biased journalism.  Many of these "human rights advocates" never met a dictatorship they didn't like. 

Maybe some of the Obamans are learning about the real world and the way it works.  We give credit where it's due.  Good decision.  We hope many other nations will follow.  Let's see if Obama has coattails on this one.

April 18, 2009   Permalink

THE NEWS? - AT 3:47 P.M. ET:  I was just doing a sweep of the cable news channels, as I do all the time, and I must tell you that the contrast between CNN and Fox seems to be getting greater.  Watching CNN is like watching an ad for the Obama administration.  The network is unashamed.  This afternoon one of its anchorwomen guided CNN reporters and interviewees through a laudatory prayer meeting about the wonders of Obaman diplomacy and what it is achieving.  Why, he's got the whole world in his hands.

On Fox, though, matters were more sober and balanced.  The most important comment I heard came from former Ambassador John Bolton, who said that there was some value in President Obama doing all these photo ops with people like Hugo Chavez.  In a year, Bolton said, the administration will be embarrassed by those photos, and will have learned a lesson - that nations pursue their own interests, and won't be swayed by the personality of the man in the White House.

Bolton is correct.  But, if you're in a lighthearted mood and want to see what movie-fan magazines used to be like in reporting on screen stars, flip to CNN.

April 18, 2009   Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  From Ralph Peters, writing in the New York Post:

on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced her solution to piracy: Send your tax dollars to Somalia in foreign aid.

That's rewarding criminality. It's tribute money. We're not asking for trouble. We're on our knees begging for it.

Since the new administration took office, our enemies have surged to challenge us, from northern Mexico through the Middle East to Asia. They sense weakness. And their instincts may be right.

Oh, we're huffing and puffing on North Korea -- which really isn't an immediate problem for the United States. (If China wants a nutty neighbor with nukes, hey, let's give General Tso's chickens a chance to come home to roost.) But we won't do anything hard.

COMMENT:  Peters is correct.  We have to start measuring Obama's policies against their effect on the United States and our own safety.  We're not against negotiations here.  Reagan negotiated.  We're against negotiations in which we lose.  And we fear that there are people around Obama who have no problem with losing.

April 18, 2009   Permalink

ANOTHER WARM MULLAH RESPONSE - AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  From the Associated Press:

An American journalist jailed in Iran has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison, her lawyer said Saturday, dashing any hopes for her quick release.

The verdict was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of spying, and it was unclear how the conviction would affect recent overtures by the Obama administration for better relations and engagement with Washington's longtime adversary.

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.

COMMENT:  Secretary Clinton has made a pro forma appeal for her release.  Big deal.  This case could be resolved in minutes if the ruling mullahs wish it.  We should make it clear that any talks with Iran will be affected by this outrage.  Obama often comes off as weak, and he cannot simply let this stand without action.  But I fear he'll employ the same approach here as with the recent North Korean missile test - some critical words, and nothing more.  If that's true, we sink more and more into the quicksand. 

April 18, 2009   Permalink

AND NOW CUBA - AT 9:04 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — President Obama, seeking to thaw long-frozen relations with Cuba, told a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders on Friday that “the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba,” and that he was willing to have his administration engage the Castro government on a wide array of issues.

Mr. Obama’s remarks, during the opening ceremony at the Summit of the Americas, are the clearest signal in decades that the United States is willing to change direction in its dealings with Cuba. They capped a dizzying series of developments this week, including surprisingly warm words between Raúl Castro, Cuba’s leader, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

COMMENT:  This will undoubtedly cheer the thousands of political prisoners in Castro's prisons, just as Obama's groveling to the Muslim world undoubtedly thrills Muslim human-rights campaigners.  Not. 

We'll withhold judgment for a time.  The president also correctly warned that Cuba's repressive policies are on the table, and he warned that routine Latin American attempts to blame the United States for all problems south of our border must go.

We did engage both the Soviet Union and China during the Cold War, so this is really nothing new.  The issue is what we will give, and demand in return.  A negotiation is just talk unless defined precisely.  If human freedom suddenly disappears from the agenda, then we're in trouble.  And that is my fear.  The so-called "realist" school is back in town, with its moral-equivalency chorus.  Mr. Obama must resist them.

April 18, 2009   Permalink 

UN STILL NOT PLEASED WITH WASHINGTON - AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  The United Nations, whose moral authority is overwhelming, speaks out about American practices:

VIENNA (AP) -- An Austrian newspaper quotes the U.N.'s top torture investigator as saying President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates international law.

Manfred Nowak is quoted in Der Standard as saying the United States has committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it.

COMMENT:  This guy is listed in his bios as an "Austrian human rights lawyer."  Ah yes, that great Austrian tradition of human rights.  Oh well, let's not quibble over 1938-45. 

The problem is that his opinion will give added impetus to the left-wing loons in the U.S. who want to prosecute Bush-era officials and employees.  Our techniques were enhanced interrogation methods, but I think the word "torture" really is over the top.  With the real horrors going on all over the world, obsessing over Guantanamo Bay seems like hypocrisy at its worst.  But the UN is hypocrisy defined.

April 18, 2009   Permalink

FRIDAY,  APRIL 17,  2009

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE... - AT 5:44 P.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Now that the captain and crew of the Maersk Alabama are back home, Congress wants to hear about their ordeal firsthand as lawmakers consider new ways to combat piracy on the high seas.

Outreach to Capt. Richard Phillips and his crew is just beginning, say congressional aides. But the Senate Foreign Relations and the House International Relations committees want to hear the harrowing story of the pirates' methods and operations firsthand -- and soon.

COMMENT:  We are a service-oriented site here at Urgent Agenda, and one of the services we provide is translations into English.  We therefore provide the following English translation of the above AP selection:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the 2010 congressional elections coming up, members of the House and Senate strove desperately today to set up photo opportunities with the captain and crew of the Maersk Alabama, recently hijacked by pirates off Somalia.

Some members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are now carrying 3x5 cards with the name of Captain Richard Phillips, so they can remember it.  Other senators are trying to find any family links they may have with Phillips or members of his crew.

Hearings will be held about the harrowing ordeal of the seamen.  Members of Congress will be alerted to come to the hearings for the exciting parts.  They will then be allowed to sneak out during the boring moments, about foreign policy and how to solve the pirate problem.

Speaking truth to power.

April 17, 2009   Permalink

HERE WE GO - AT 3:57 P.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency concluded Friday that greenhouse gases linked to climate change "endanger public health and welfare," setting the stage for regulating them under federal clean air laws.

The EPA action marks the first step toward imposing limits on pollution linked to climate change, which would mean tighter rules for cars and power plants. Agency officials cautioned such regulations are expected to be part of a lengthy process and not issued anytime soon.

COMMENT:  Okay, we all want clean air.  Anyone who doesn't?  But we also want decisions to be based on real science, not "consensus" science or political science.  And we must demand solutions, where required, that are thoroughly researched and examined, not the latest fad.

I certainly don't deny that we sometimes abuse the planet.  We have seen poisoned rivers and foul air.  Conservatives must avoid knee-jerk opposition to environmentalists, must embrace "conserving" the Earth, but at the same time must resist fast-hustle operations by people who simply want everyone to live the way they do, or who have a financial interest in "new technologies," which may never work.  Conservatives have an important role to play in environmentalism, by asking the tough questions that conservatives are so good at asking, and by stressing the economic implications of environmental decisions.  Economic damage done in exchange for small or insignificant gains can result in poverty and hunger.  We should join the discussion, not avoid it.

April 17, 2009   Permalink   

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REBUKED - AT 9:26 A.M. ET:  In a superb piece, former CIA chief Michael Hayden and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey tear into President Obama's decision to release internal Bush administration memos on interrogations:

The Obama administration has declassified and released opinions of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) given in 2005 and earlier that analyze the legality of interrogation techniques authorized for use by the CIA. Those techniques were applied only when expressly permitted by the director, and are described in these opinions in detail, along with their limits and the safeguards applied to them.

The release of these opinions was unnecessary as a legal matter, and is unsound as a matter of policy. Its effect will be to invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past, and that we came sorely to regret on Sept. 11, 2001.

And...

...public disclosure of the OLC opinions, and thus of the techniques themselves, assures that terrorists are now aware of the absolute limit of what the U.S. government could do to extract information from them, and can supplement their training accordingly and thus diminish the effectiveness of these techniques as they have the ones in the Army Field Manual.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole piece.  What we're dealing with here is a mindset in the Obama administration:  We are partially at fault for terror; Bush was a fascist; this whole war on terror is childish, and will make matters worse; we're no better than anyone else.

We are now officially back to September 10, 2001.  Our enemies know it.  Oh, wait.  We don't have enemies - just people with whom we have a cultural difference.

April 17, 2009   Permalink 

FROM THE ANNALS OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE - AT 8:02 A.M. ET:  From London's Daily Mail:

A police officer collapsed and died after giving birth to twins after staff shortages meant she had to wait for four days to be induced, an inquest has heard.  James and Hannah were delivered by emergency Caesarean just before PC Sarah Underhill died on Sunday, October 5, last year - four days after she had been admitted to hospital.

COMMENT:  Of course we have some problems with our own medical system.  But there are an inordinate number of stories like this coming out of Britain, and other countries with socialized medicine.

One great advantage our system has is speed.  If there's an emergency, it's treated like one.  Obviously, there may be failures and exceptions, even here,  but we seem to do "critical" a lot better than anyone else.

April 17, 2009   Permalink

THIS MAY NOT WORK OUT - AT 7:14 A.M. ET:  It seems that we here in New York are about to have a guest:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The captured Somali pirate who held a merchant ship captain hostage will be brought to New York to face trial, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The suspect, identified as Abduhl Wal-i-Musi, was taken aboard a U.S. Navy ship shortly before Navy SEAL snipers killed the three remaining pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips hostage on a lifeboat launched from his cargo vessel, the Maersk Alabama.

The official said it was not immediately clear when Wal-i-Musi will be brought to New York. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose information about an ongoing investigation.

COMMENT:  Oh, can you just imagine!  A pirate of color being tried in New York.  You have no idea what's about to happen here.  Every lawyer with leftist credentials will be vying to represent this misunderstood youth, whose only crime was to want to help his family and defeat American imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism, and rheumatism.  Oh, the injustice.  Oh, the anguish.  Watch for a lawyer named Cohen and another one named Warren.  They're at the top of the list, now that Lynne Stewart has been sidelined by legal charges.

And our juries!  Not only would some New York juries have acquitted O.J. Simpson, they would have awarded him damages. 

And the demonstrators.  We have the very best here, thoroughly trained by the Ramsey Clark School of Anarchy. 

I can't wait to see those CNN reporters show the human side of piracy. 

Another opening, another show.

April 17, 2009   Permalink

AND AGAIN - AT 6:51 A.M. ET:  The man just can't seem to help it.  From The Washington Times:

MEXICO CITY | Meeting face-to-face with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Obama on Thursday said the U.S. is to blame for much of Mexico's drug violence, and he set up a major congressional gun-control battle by calling on the Senate to ratify a treaty designed to track and cut the flow of guns to other countries.

COMMENT:  Will someone please explain to me, if we are responsible for Mexico's drug violence, why there is no similar violence in Canada?  Drug gangs aren't roaming around Canada.  Guns and illegals aren't flowing over the Canadian border. 

But once again, it's our fault.  And the president seems to be misinformed.  Although propagandists say that most guns used in Mexico's scourge of violence come from the United States, it turns out only that most traceable guns come from this country.  And the great majority of guns used in Mexican gang warfare cannot be traced.

April 17, 2009   Permalink

ANOTHER HIGH-MINDED PUBLIC SERVANT - AT 6:31 A.M. ET:  Another Obaman will have to come up with a good explanation.  From The New York Times:

The man leading the Obama administration’s efforts to restructure the auto industry has been described in Securities and Exchange Commission documents as having arranged for his investment firm to pay more than $1 million to obtain New York State pension business.

Although he is not named in the documents, a person with knowledge of the inquiry said the investment executive is Steven Rattner, co-founder of the Quadrangle Group, the prominent private equity firm.

The S.E.C. complaint, filed as part of an expansive state and federal investigation into corruption at the state pension fund, details the efforts of Quadrangle to gain business from the pension fund beginning in 2004.

COMMENT:  In Chicago this would be a "legitimate interaction for the public good."  Let's see how tough the media will be in exploring this.  The Times is to be commended for reporting it - especially as Rattner used to be a Times business writer.

April 17, 2009   Permalink