FRIDAY,  APRIL 24,  2009

AND PAKISTAN, TOO - AT 1:57 P.M. ET:  The crisis in Pakistan continues.  American military men now add their voices to the alarm expressed by Hillary Clinton.  Reports say that Richard Holbrooke, our special representative for the region, is sending back alarming dispatches several times each day.  From The New York Times:

American officials have been expressing alarm about the widening areas of Pakistan coming under Taliban control this week, as hundreds of armed Taliban militants consolidated control of yet another Pakistani region. On Friday, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in the region, told members of a committee in the House of Representatives that extremists who have set up sanctuaries along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan are eroding security in Afghanistan and threaten "Pakistan’s very existence."

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also expressed concerns Friday about the deteriorating situation, which he said was in “constant, steady decline.”

“The situation there is definitely worse than it was two weeks ago. It just continues to spin off,” Admiral Mullen told reporters in southern Afghanistan, where he was touring following a visit to Pakistan Wednesday and Thursday.

COMMENT:  And what are we doing in America?  Why, we're deciding whether to investigate Bush-era officials for keeping the country safe. 

We sometimes forget what kind of a party the Democratic Party started becoming in the sixties.  Think Carter.  Think McGovern.  Think cutting off aid to our South Vietnamese allies.  Think indifference to crime.  Think destroying intelligence agencies. 

Harry Truman is turning over in his grave.  I'd love to hear the old blue-mouthed guy talk about his party today.

Reader John Tozier adds: 

Just a thought. With all that is going on in Pakistan, I wonder why I haven't heard anything about what must be going through the minds of the leaders of India.

They have an even larger stake in this than we do.

April 24, 2009   Permalink 

REMEMBER IRAQ? - AT 1:47 P.M. ET:  The growing violence in Iraq, a hint of a return to pre-surge days, hasn't yet caught the American public's imagination.  It should.  The New York Times reports:

BAGHDAD — Two suicide bombers struck outside the gates of the holiest Shiite site in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 60 people and wounding scores more, according to preliminary reports from police

The blasts came after the single deadliest day in Iraq in more than a year, and punctuated a deadly outburst of violence in recent weeks. In barely 24 hours, at least 140 people have died and 240 have been wounded.

COMMENT:  There is still an enemy in Iraq.  It knows that the new president has no stomach for the struggle.  It acts accordingly.  It also knows that the American media spin machine will blame all this on BUSH (!!). 

What will Obama do if the violence escalates even further?  It will be one of the major foreign-policy tests coming up.  The media will cover for him.  I have no direct proof, but I can suggest the idea that Obama's soft line is partly responsible for the new reversal of fortune.  It was awfully quiet in Iraq just before he took office.

April 24, 2009   Permalink

CHANGE WE CAN'T BELIEVE IN - AT 1:19 P.M. ET: 

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., facing the threat of a bankruptcy filing if it can’t meet a June 1 U.S. deadline, will preserve the GMC truck line and drop its 83-year- old Pontiac brand as part of a government-led recalibration of its business plan, people familiar with the decision said.

The Detroit automaker will keep the GMC, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick brands, after a review that included profitability with the Obama administration’s automotive task force, said the people, who asked not to be named because the decisions have not been announced. GM may reveal next week the end of the make that produced the Grand Prix, Bonneville and Firebirds, they said.

COMMENT:  No more Pontiac.  But you can be sure, in the age of government control, that we'll soon see the Chevrolet Efficiency, the Buck Planetsaver, the GMC Windpower, and the Cadillac Rich but Green.  Can't wait to drive 'em.  Understand the dash boards will be spectacular, and will include the new digital guilt meter.

April 24, 2009   Permalink

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE - AT 7:42:  From the Los Angeles Times, via the Seattle Times:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuses at U.S. prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush years.

The decision will make public for the first time photos obtained in military investigations at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Forty four pictures that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was seeking in a court case, plus a "substantial number" of other images, will be released by May 28.

The photos, examined by Air Force and Army criminal investigators, are apparently not as shocking as those taken at Abu Ghraib, which became a symbol of U.S. mistakes in Iraq. But Pentagon officials nevertheless are concerned that the release could incite another backlash in the Middle East.

COMMENT:  Will these Obama people ever learn?  Of course, the ACLU would not care at all if there's another backlash in the Middle East.  The ACLU wouldn't even care if Americans were killed as a result.  This organization, which joined the fringe many years ago, has little to do with civil liberties today.

A prominent ACLU lawyer, one of the last of the decent ones, told me a few years ago how worried he was about what the organization had become.  He reported that there are people on the ACLU national board who didn't even believe in free speech.

At one time the ACLU did some valuable work, and probably still does some today.  I was a member.  So was Douglas MacArthur.  It had members across the political spectrum.  That changed dramatically in the mid-sixties, as the organization absorbed the sixties culture.  There was a mass exodus of members in that time, moving the group sharply to the left.  It has never recovered.

So, now we'll see some new pictures, and the Bush haters will be energized once more.  This from an administration that promised bi-partisanship. 

April 21, 2009    Permalink

THE RECURRING NIGHTMARE - AT 7:25 A.M. ET:  We've brought this up before, but there's more.  Government experts warned, when Obama came in, that it is mid-level appointees, not Cabinet officers, who can do the real damage in an administration.  It's at the mid level that policies get made and carried out.  We've seen some real horror stories at Justice, where a group of leftist professors from the Ivy League have taken up residence.

But at Defense, the insult is the greatest.  The Washington Times expresses its outrage at the appointment of radical columnist and law professor Rosa Brooks to a sensitive Defense position.  You'd think Defense Secretary Robert Gates would have raised the roof, but he's showing signs of becoming a company man:

President Obama is surrendering national security with a radical appointment at the Defense Department. Rosa Brooks, this month made adviser to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Flournoy, will be in a position to do significant damage to U.S. security...

...A review of Ms. Brooks' published work reveals her hard-left, rabidly ideological positions on defense matters. She regularly referred to Mr. Bush as a war criminal, and argues that Bush-era policies on terrorism - which prevented any major attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001 - made America less secure. Referring to Mr. Bush and former Vice President Richard Cheney, she wrote, "They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment." She has called al Qaeda "little more than an obscure group of extremist thugs" and wrongly predicted that the surge in Iraq was "a feckless plan" that would prove "too little, too late." Putting her in the policy shop "is like Lyndon Johnson making Jane Fonda a senior adviser on Vietnam," a former Pentagon adviser says.

COMMENT:  Rosa Brooks is the daughter of radical feminist Barbara Ehrenreich.  Brooks is not a liberal, but a radical.  It is amazing that she could even get security clearance.  Apparently, she's brought to you by the same fine folks who gave us Samantha Power. 

Why was she appointed?  Who chose her?  We have a right to know, but the mainstream media is not interested.  I'm sure that, for some "journalists" out there, the appointment is just fine.  The line spewed by Rosa Brooks is what they heard for four years at "elite" colleges.  It's not foreign to their ears. 

Republicans should be in an uproar.  The fact that they're not shows how far they have to go to get their act together.

April 24, 2009   Permalink  

ON SECOND THOUGHT - AT 7:01 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The White House and the Democratic leadership in the Senate signaled on Thursday that they would block for now any effort to establish an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration’s approval of harsh interrogation techniques.

In doing so, they sought to reduce pressure for a full inquiry — from, among others, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi — that has grown more intense since President Obama suggested on Tuesday that he would be open to such an investigation. While the White House has contended that Mr. Obama never actively supported an inquiry, his firmer opposition to the possibility, communicated to Congressional leaders in meetings on Wednesday night and Thursday, represented a shift in emphasis.

COMMENT:  The president realizes that he made a mistake, and let loose the rage of the Democratic left, a force that can destroy his presidency.  The White House is trying to contain the damage, but Nancy Pelosi represents the left wing in the House of Representatives, and I doubt if she can put the fire out there.  It burns continuously. 

Americans must be made to understand - and only the GOP and the more conservative press outlets can do it - how radical some elements in the Obama coalition really are.  The Congressional Black Caucus, for example, is headed by Barbara Lee of California, who has openly supported Marxist causes.

April 24, 2009   Permalink 

SOMEONE IS ALIVE IN THE GOP - AT 6:51 A.M. ET:  From The Politico:

New York Republican Rep. Peter King thinks his party needs to go nuke if Bush era officials are prosecuted on torture charges.

King, the outspoken ranking member of the House homeland security committee, said Republicans should "shut down [legislative] activity across the board" if any Bush-era officials are hauled into court.

"We would need to have a scorched-earth policy and use procedural means to bring the place to a halt — go to war," he told POLITICO.

He added:

"If we have another 2,000 people killed, I want Nancy Pelosi and [liberal philanthropist] George Soros, John Conyers and Pat Leahy to go to the funeral and say, 'Your son was vaporized because we didn’t want to dump some guy's head under water for 30 seconds.'"

COMMENT:  Whether you agree with Pete King or not, at least someone in the GOP is showing a little anger.  Some of today's GOP leaders need electro-shock therapy to get their brains started. 

The hard left in the Democratic Party, heavily headquartered in northern California and adjoining precincts, will apparently stop at nothing to paralyze our national-security apparatus and prosecute Bush officials, with the dream of getting to Bush and Cheney themselves.  Fortunately, a backlash against these nut jobs is building.

April 24, 2009   Permalink

THURSDAY,  APRIL 23,  2009

THE CHRYSLER FADE - AT 7:33 P.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

DETROIT — The Treasury Department is directing Chrysler to prepare a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as next week, people with direct knowledge of the action said Thursday.

The Treasury has an agreement in principle with the United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing, said these people, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Moreover, Fiat of Italy would complete its alliance with Chrysler while the company is under bankruptcy protection.

COMMENT:  Can GM be far behind?  And yet Ford seems to be surviving.  Ford didn't take a government bailout. It seems incredible that we've arrived at the point, less than three months into the Obama presidency, where the federal government can order a private corporation into bankruptcy.  But, you take government money, you take the control that goes with it.

GM and Chrysler should have gone into bankruptcy, on their own, months ago.  Now the government may well dictate the kind of cars they manufacture, if they make any at all.

April 23, 2009    Permalink

CAUGHT IN THE ACT - AT 7:24 P.M. ET:  Nancy Pelosi has reportedly been beatin' the drums for an investigation into Bush-era interrogation techniques.  She presents herself as pure as the driven snow.  Not so fast, Nan, as The Politico reports:

Nancy Pelosi denies knowing U.S. officials used waterboarding — but GOP operatives are pointing to a 2007 Washington Post story which describes an hour-ong 2002 briefing in which Pelosi was told about enhanced interrogation techniques in graphic detail.

Two unnamed officials told the paper that Pelosi, then a member of the Democratic minority, didn't raise substantial objections.

COMMENT:  An investigation can come back to haunt the liberal Dems, unless the probe is rigged in advance, which it probably will be.  Obama must bring his party under control on this issue, lest his presidency be undermined by an image of White House weakness and congressional immaturity.

April 23, 2009   Permalink

PAKISTAN SLIDES - AT 7:06 P.M. ET:  From London's Daily Mail:

Pakistan teetered on the brink of collapse today as Taliban fighters threatened to overrun the volatile country.

As violence broke out in the disputed north-west corner, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the state, which has nuclear capability, now posed a 'mortal threat' to the world.

'I think the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists,' she added.

Mrs Clinton's comments came as Islamabad was forced to deploy troops to protect key buildings and bridges.

COMMENT:  We've been cautioning Urgent Agenda readers to watch Pakistan very closely.  It could become the story of the year, and more.

Note the toughness in Clinton's comments.  We pointed out last night in The Angel's Corner that Clinton always sounds slightly to the right of the White House.  If a policy succeeds, no one will notice the difference in tone.  If it fails, she can always claim, though her "people," that she wanted to be tougher.  No fault foreign policy.

April 23, 2009   Permalink

THIS JUST IN - AT 10:50 A.M. ET:  Important news from the Miami Herald:

CARACAS -- Venezuela has announced its U.S.-based oil company Citgo is donating an island in the Delaware River to the state of New Jersey.

Alejandro Granado, president of Houston-based Citgo, said the donation shows a commitment by President Hugo Chávez's government to environmental conservation. New Jersey's Natural Lands Trust board agreed in January to accept Citgo's donation of Petty's Island, which was previously used for fuel storage and is located in the Delaware River between Pennsauken and Philadelphia.

COMMENT:  You see what a little handshake between friends like Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez can do?  We get an island.  With a slap on the back, who knows?  Maybe a time-share in Caracas.

April 23, 2009   Permalink

IRAQ - ONGOING - AT 10:24 A.M. ET:

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Two terrorist incidents in Iraq left almost 200 people dead or injured, including Iranian Shiite Muslim pilgrims, as Iraqi security forces announced the arrest of al-Qaeda’s leader in the country.

There were at least 105 casualties among the six busloads of Iranians who were targeted at a roadside restaurant in Diyala province as they made the journey to a shrine in Karbala, Iran’s state-run Fars news agency said without providing details of the number who died. Agence France-Presse put the death toll at 45.

COMMENT:  We forget that Iraq is still a dangerous place, and may get more dangerous as we draw down.  This new attack targeted Iranian pilgrims, which could seriously complicate things.  The struggle isn't over.  One great danger:  the liberal press beating the drums for us to get out even faster.

April 23, 2009   Permalink

IS THIS JOURNALISM? - AT 8:02 A.M. ET:  If you want to know why the mainstream press is losing its credibility, just browse through this piece of salesmanship posing as a news story:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For the first time in years, more Americans than not say the country is headed in the right direction, a sign that Barack Obama has used the first 100 days of his presidency to lift the public's mood and inspire hopes for a brighter future.

Intensely worried about their personal finances and medical expenses, Americans nonetheless appear realistic about the time Obama might need to turn things around, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. It shows most Americans consider their new president to be a strong, ethical and empathetic leader who is working to change Washington.

Nobody knows how long the honeymoon will last, but Obama has clearly transformed the yes-we-can spirit of his candidacy into a tool of governance. His ability to inspire confidence -- Obama's second book is titled ''The Audacity of Hope'' -- has thus far buffered the president against the harsh political realities of two wars, a global economic meltdown and countless domestic challenges.

COMMENT:  Get that third paragraph.  Can you hear the organ music?  Do you hear the left-wing equivalent of the theme from "Patton"? 

Yet, if you read the whole story, you'll see that the results of the poll were far more nuanced than the opening suggests.  And Rasmussen reports that Obama only has a presidential approval, as of yesterday, of 54 percent, not going through the roof.

The MSM is making this country sound like a budding theocracy.  He has come!  He has come!

April 23, 2009   Permalink

FUROR OVER POSSIBLE PROBE OF BUSH APPOINTEES GROWS - AT 7:25 A.M. ET:  A hard-hitting piece from Bloomberg on the hazards ahead if America goes the show-trial route:

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is seeking to substitute Bush administration political appointees for intelligence-agency professionals as targets of public outrage over interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists.

Obama’s decision to rule out prosecuting those who conducted the interrogations reflects his need to avoid antagonizing the Central Intelligence Agency as the U.S. fights two wars and faces terrorist threats. Still, he risks a bruising political fight with Republicans furious over potential prosecutions of senior Bush administration officials.

“When you get one administration prosecuting its predecessor, you start creating the conditions of a banana republic,” said Philip Heymann, a law professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who served as deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton. “Every Republican in the country would think this was a dangerous attack on the two-party system.”

COMMENT:  And those Republicans would be right.  I like the "banana republic" analogy.  Of course, we can't say it too loudly.  It's not politically correct.  We must show great respect for banana republics, and for Chiquita Banana herself, a marvelous woman and a fighter for banana dignity.

April 23, 2009   Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 6:55 A.M. ET:  From Ralph Peters, in the New York Post, on the demands by the left to put on trial Bush officials involved in the interrogation program aimed at terror suspects:

Now the left wants an Inquisition for heretics who failed to share its worldview. Men and women who, in their capacity as public servants, wrestled with difficult legal issues in the course of our battle with terrorists are now to be tried and shamed because the left disagreed with their legal opinions and actions. No matter that most Americans wouldn't view the methods of our interrogators as torture when applied to hardened terrorists (despite the media's ceaseless effort to convince us otherwise). No matter that foreign leaders championed by the left use vastly more brutal techniques.

No matter that interrogators differ on the utility of "harsh" methods or that the information gleaned indisputably saved American lives. No matter that our system of government functioned as it was designed to.

COMMENT:  Absolutely correct.  This is a disgrace, with the potential for enormous damage to the United States, not that the left cares.

April 23, 2009   Permalink