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TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY 3,  2009

THE NEWEST BLITZ - AT 7:52 P.M. ET:  From Britain's Telegraph:

Schools faced mounting anger from parents and business leaders over their "defeatist" approach to the bad weather as one in three closed to pupils for a second consecutive day because of snow.

Almost 2.5 million children were forced to stay at home, keeping millions of parents off work and costing the economy billions of pounds in lost business.

Schools and local authorities were accused of teaching children to "give up" in the face of adversity by shutting down in areas with only a few inches of snow.

COMMENT:  A defeatist approach to snow?  I guess it isn't their finest hour.

AS THE CLOCK TICKS - AT 7:20 P.M. ET:  From Fox News:

Iran's launch of its first satellite into space is a grave cause for concern to the U.S. as the Islamic Republic continues to work toward developing long-range missile capability, the Pentagon and White House said Tuesday.

Tuesday's launch of its first domestically made satellite "does not convince us that Iran is acting responsibly to advance stability or security in the region," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

COMMENT:  The problem is that the clock is ticking on Iran's nuclear program as we formulate still one more "negotiating" position.  Our "allies" are not being all that helpful.  There does not appear to be a great sense of urgency.  This can erupt in the most painful ways.

WHICH 11 PERCENT? - AT 4:32 P.M. ET:  From Rasmussen:

Just 11% of U.S. voters think America should apologize to Iran for “crimes” against the Islamic country – one of the prerequisites demanded by the Iranian president before he will agree to meet with President Barack Obama.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 73% oppose such an apology.

COMMENT:  Wouldn't you love to meet some of that 11 percent?  Are you thinking "college faculties"?

THIS JUST IN - AT 4:23 P.M. ET: 

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.) confirmed last week that the First Amendment allows talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh to express his views, even those critical of the policies of President Barack Obama.

COMMENT:  I am so relieved to learn this.  We were just about to take Urgent Agenda underground and work from a bunker in Montana.  Wait, let me cancel the movers.

EXCLUSIVITY - AT 3:50 P.M. ET: From AP: 

The special US envoy for Middle East peace, George Mitchell, has asked to open his own office in the region to deal with day-to-day developments between Israel, the Palestinians and neighboring states, signaling a desire for greater American hands-on involvement in negotiations.

COMMENT:  Look, I don't know if this is a good idea or not.  But wasn't Obama the candidate who constantly whined about George Bush's "unilateralism"?  I think so.  This is about as unilateral as it gets.  I mean, we're sending our own nanny. 

TROUBLESOME CLAUSE - AT 3:31 P.M. ET:  From Britain's Telegraph:

The European Union and Canada have warned that the "Buy America" clause in President Barack Obama's $900bn fiscal stimulus package is in danger of fostering unwanted and damaging US protectionism.

In letters to the Obama administration, the block of European nations and Canada said that the measure could damage the global economy's recovery and potentially prolong the current recession.

COMMENT:  This can cause trouble.  Protectionism prolonged the Great Depression.  We want to boost our own industries, but there probably are better ways to do it than by waving a red flag in front of trading partners. 

ANOTHER RED FACE - AT 3:25 P.M. ET:  From CQ:

President Obama's new candidate to run the Commerce Department voted in favor of abolishing the agency as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995.

Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H., whose nomination was expected to be announced Tuesday, also worked in the Senate to trim the department's budget as head of the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee.

COMMENT:  Another tribute to the Obama vetting process.  Send compliments to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. 

BULLETIN - AT 2:32 P.M. ET:  Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary.  As you know, he has, as they say, tax issues.  This is another failure of the Obama vetting system, which has messed up grandly on Bill Richardson, Tim Geithner, Nancy Killefer, and now Daschle.  Yet, as reader Tom Wharton points out, the in-the-tank New York Times was lavishing praise on that system not long ago:

"But Mr. Obama has elevated the vetting even beyond what might have been expected, especially when it comes to applicants’ family members, in a reflection of his campaign rhetoric against lobbying and the
back-scratching, self-serving ways of Washington."

COMMENT:  Old rule of journalism:  Don't let the story get ahead of the facts.

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE - AT 10:47 A.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.

Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.

COMMENT:  This president's vetting process is the worst I've ever seen.  The ethical problems hang over this administration like...like greenhouse gases.

REQUIRED READING

Posted at 10:02 a.m. ET:

Judea Pearl, father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded by the Taliban, writes of his dismay at what's happened to public discussion since his son's murder.  Someone should put this on the president's desk, but won't: 

This week marks the seventh anniversary of the murder of our son, former Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. My wife Ruth and I wonder: Would Danny have believed that today's world emerged after his tragedy?

We doubt it.

Neither he, nor the millions who were shocked by his murder, could have possibly predicted that seven years later his abductor, Omar Saeed Sheikh, according to several South Asian reports, would be planning terror acts from the safety of a Pakistani jail. Or that his murderer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, now in Guantanamo, would proudly boast of his murder in a military tribunal in March 2007 to the cheers of sympathetic jihadi supporters. Or that this ideology of barbarism would be celebrated in European and American universities, fueling rally after rally for Hamas, Hezbollah and other heroes of "the resistance."

And...

...somehow, barbarism, often cloaked in the language of "resistance," has gained acceptance in the most elite circles of our society. The words "war on terror" cannot be uttered today without fear of offense. Civilized society, so it seems, is so numbed by violence that it has lost its gift to be disgusted by evil.

Beautifully said.  Judea Pearl could give some lessons to President Obama.

I believe it all started with well-meaning analysts, who in their zeal to find creative solutions to terror decided that terror is not a real enemy, but a tactic. Thus the basic engine that propels acts of terrorism -- the ideological license to elevate one's grievances above the norms of civilized society -- was wished away in favor of seemingly more manageable "tactical" considerations.

And...

But the clearest endorsement of terror as a legitimate instrument of political bargaining came from former President Jimmy Carter. In his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," Mr. Carter appeals to the sponsors of suicide bombing. "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Road-map for Peace are accepted by Israel." Acts of terror, according to Mr. Carter, are no longer taboo, but effective tools for terrorists to address perceived injustices.

I'm glad to see Judea Pearl take on that disgusting little man, Jimmy Carter, a public embarrassment to this nation.

The media have played a major role in handing terrorism this victory of acceptability. Qatari-based Al Jazeera television, for example, is still providing Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi hours of free air time each week to spew his hateful interpretation of the Koran, authorize suicide bombing, and call for jihad against Jews and Americans.

Oh, but, don't you know, it's just a different "narrative," a different point of view.  Who are we to disagree with another culture?

And then there's Mr. Moyers:

Some American pundits and TV anchors didn't seem much different from Al Jazeera in their analysis of the recent war in Gaza. Bill Moyers was quick to lend Hamas legitimacy as a "resistance" movement, together with honorary membership in PBS's imaginary "cycle of violence." In his Jan. 9 TV show, Mr. Moyers explained to his viewers that "each [side] greases the cycle of violence, as one man's terrorism becomes another's resistance to oppression." He then stated -- without blushing -- that for readers of the Hebrew Bible "God-soaked violence became genetically coded." The "cycle of violence" platitude allows analysts to empower terror with the guise of reciprocity, and, amazingly, indict terror's victims for violence as immutable as DNA.

And our "institutions of higher learning"?

When we ask ourselves what it is about the American psyche that enables genocidal organizations like Hamas -- the charter of which would offend every neuron in our brains -- to become tolerated in public discourse, we should take a hard look at our universities and the way they are currently being manipulated by terrorist sympathizers.

Judea Pearl is a college professor at UCLA.  This is coming from inside.  It isn't only terrorist sympathizers who manipulate our universities, but old-line reds who see their role, not as educators, but as indoctrinators.

Finally...

Danny's picture is hanging just in front of me, his warm smile as reassuring as ever. But I find it hard to look him straight in the eyes and say: You did not die in vain. 

This is a great piece.  Please read.

February 3, 2009.      Permalink          

DEALING AGAIN - AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  The way the race card has been played by some Democrats is something to behold.  Yesterday, regarding the nomination of Eric Holder to be the nation's first African-American attorney general, ultra-liberal Senator Pat Leahy spoke out:

Holder's chief supporter, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the confirmation was a fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream that everyone would be judged by the content of their character.

''Come on the right side of history,'' said Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

COMMENT:  The sense of self-righteousness and moral superiority here is overwhelming.  The problem with Holder is the content of his character.  And another problem is his view of national security.  Apparently, Senator Leahy wasn't much interested in either of these. 

CLASH COMING? - AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  John Hinderaker at Power Line alerts us to a piece at, of all places, the Huffington Post, that contains this troubling report:

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (IPS) - CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

Obama's decision to override Petraeus's recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.

COMMENT:  I cannot verify that story, but there have been rumblings that the very popular Petraeus is not happy with the new president.  What will happen, though, if Obama doesn't bend and Petraeus believes the 16-month schedule puts us in danger?  Will there be an open clash?  A clash of press leaks?  Will Petraeus resign in protest?  Or be fired, like MacArthur?  Watch this carefully because it could turn into a major story.  If you start seeing Petraeus smeared in the press, you'll know that a campaign against him is on.  The fact is, presidents tend to win battles against generals, even popular generals.  Lincoln won his against McClellan.  Truman won his against MacArthur.  Both McClellan and MacArthur wanted to be president, and failed. 

Petraeus, though, is a shrewd operator.  If a clash really develops between him and the White House, a resignation in protest  - "I cannot support a policy that places us in danger" - might just launch a political career.  I'm just dreaming, but the dreams are interesting.

BAD CHOICE - AT 7:57 A.M. ET:  Increasingly, we worry about some of the personnel choices of this administration.  We have to look at who's appointed to the middle-level positions, for these are the people who will carry out, or distort, policy every day.  So we're alarmed by the appointment of Christopher Hill as our new ambassador to Iraq, replacing the brilliant Ryan Crocker, who has just retired.  Hill, as you'll recall, was chief negotiator in the effort to get North Korea to roll back its nuclear program.  While Crocker was an expert in the Arab world, and spoke Arabic, Hill knows nothing about the area and does not speak the language.  He is, however, a slick operator and dealmaker, and a consummate self promoter - perfect for an administration that likes the appearance of progress, without actual progress.  Hill negotiated a deal with the Koreans, but it seems to be unraveling.  The Washington Post says of him:

Hill won plaudits for his efforts in the face of opposition from within the Bush administration and the often frustrating negotiating tactics of the North Koreans. But he also was criticized for appearing at times too eager to strike a deal, or too eager to court the news media.

Poor choice.  We need someone in Baghdad who will advance the progress made and tell the president the truth about what it will take to keep that progress going.  This looks like a P.R. move, the assignment of someone who can cover our tracks as we weasel out.

THE BROMIDES ARE BACK - AT 7:45 A.M. ET:  With the coming of the new administration, we warmly welcome back some familiar bromides, especially the clichés about education.  First lady Michelle Obama was at the Department of Education yesterday, saying this:

Recalling her experiences as a student in Chicago’s public school system, Mrs. Obama said: “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along. And I am committed, as well as my husband, to ensuring that more kids like us and kids around this country, regardless of their race, their income, their status, the property values in their neighborhood, get access to an outstanding education.”

COMMENT:  When will they ever learn?  Quality education has been available in poorer neighborhoods for decades in this country.  The New York City school system educated generations of immigrants to high standards until the 1960s, when political correctness overran the schools.  So many poor kids from deprived families were getting into Harvard as early as the 1920s, by sheer merit, that Harvard established ethnic quotes to limit their number. 

Good schools are built by good families.  They're built by cultural attitudes that value education and respect those who excel as students.  That's the key.  Tell me why, wherever Asian-American students move, the schools get better.  Please tell me, and I'll show you how to cut the education budgets by a third and improve the schools at the same time. 

SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE, BUT IT IS - AT 7:30 A.M. ET:  Remember how philospher-in-chief Joe Biden ridiculed Chief Justice Roberts for muffing the presidential oath of office?  Well, Joe did the formal swearing in for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday, and guess what happened.  It's here, in all its glory.

MONDAY,  FEBRUARY 2,  2009

GALLUP ON OBAMA - at 7:57 P.M. ET:  The Gallup organization has polled the public on President Obama's initial decisions, and finds the public quite approving...except on two significant items. The results:

COMMENT:  What these results tell us is that the abortion issue is very much alive.  Allowing funding for overseas groups that provide abortions has only a 35-percent approval.  And closing Gitmo registers only 44 percent.  Americans are not giving automatic approval to everything The One does. 

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?  - AT 6:01 P.M. ET: From AFP:

US President Barack Obama has already used experts within the last few months to hold high-level but discreet talks with both Iran and Syria, organizers of the meetings told AFP.

Officially, Obama's overtures toward both Tehran and Damascus have remained limited.

In an interview broadcast Monday, Obama said the United States would offer arch-foe Iran an extended hand of diplomacy if the Islamic Republic's leaders "unclenched their fist."...

...However, even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call "track two" discussions to approach America's two foes in the region.

TEXT:  Wait a minute.  Wasn't Obama the guy who refused to comment on foreign policy right up to his inauguration because "we only have one president at a time"?  And now we learn he was in secret negotiations with Iran and Syria during the same period.   Why do I feel we're being conned?  And, by the way, were our allies consulted?  Obama made a big deal out of George W. Bush's so-called "unilateralism," but he seems to be the biggest unilateralist of them all. 

ENOUGH ALREADY - AT 4:32 P.M. ET:  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama is heading back to his home state for the first time as president.

The White House says he will travel to Springfield, Ill., on Feb. 12 in honor of one of his heroes, Abraham Lincoln.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that Obama will attend the commemoration of Lincoln's 200th birthday and speak at a banquet in Springfield. The spokesman says Obama is returning to Illinois for the festivities at the request of Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.

COMMENT:  Okay, we'll give the president a pass on this since it's Lincoln's 200th.  But the Lincoln thing is being way overdone.  Obama has only been in the White House two weeks.  It reflects a certain adolescence in our society that some are already comparing him to Lincoln.  Enough.

MORE GENIUSES - AT 4:13 P.M. ET:  From ABC News:

Despite a near collapse that required $45 billion in federal taxpayer bailout funds, Bank of America sponsored a five day carnival-like affair just outside the Super Bowl stadium this past week as President Obama decried wasteful spending on Wall St.

The event – known as the NFL Experience – was 850,000 square feet of sports games and interactive entertainment attractions for football fans and was blanketed in Bank of America logos and marketing calls to sign up for football-themed banking products.

COMMENTS:  It seems to me that the Bank of America executives who planned this should be given huge bonuses - $10-million is about right - just because of the stress involved.

DOW DOWN - AT 4:01 P.M. ET:  The Dow closed down about 64 points, to 7937, below that psychological 8000 level.

COMMENT FROM JIMMAH CARTER WANTED - AT 9:07 A.M. ET: From AP:      

Iran played a "big role" in helping the Palestinian Hamas during Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Monday, thanking his Teheran patrons for their assistance.

The remark by Mashaal, Hamas's political leader who lives in self-imposed exile, came during a visit to Iran.

COMMENT:  Perhaps Mr. Carter, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, etc., etc., can explain this, since he is so clearly a big fan of Hamas.

MORE BRILLIANCE FROM BANK "EXECUTIVES" - AT 8:40 A.M. ET:

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Even as the economy collapsed last year and many financial workers found themselves unemployed, the dozen U.S. banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages requested visas for tens of thousands of foreign workers to fill high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The major banks, which have received $150 billion in bailout funds, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

COMMENT:  What really impresses us is the banks' keen sense of public relations.  Sharp.  Really sharp.  Clearly, the bank executives who did this deserve big bonuses.  I'd start at ten million. 

DOROTHY

Posted at 8:24 a.m. ET:

Dorothy Rabinowitz, of The Wall Street Journal, is a favorite of ours.  One of the great investigative journalists of our time, she finally won the Pulitzer Prize after it was denied her for years by the forces of political correctness.  She dared to ask questions in the wrong places, and you know what that brings.

Here, Dorothy takes on the new president, wondering whether the Obama style will actually hold up for long.  Her analysis is superb:

His view of America's new position in the world...was amply clear, its tone familiar. America had entered upon a new day -- we once were lost and now we're found, a people restored to the paths of principle and honor. Hillary Clinton, speaking as secretary of state, would a few days later add her voice to the general thanksgiving for our rebirth, declaring, "There is a great exhalation of breath going on in the world."

Yes, we can feel all the breathing on us.  Or is it laughing?

To hear Mr. Obama speak now on matters like the national defense is to recognize that the leader now in the White House is in every respect the person he seemed on the campaign trail: a man of immense moral certitude, prone to an abstract idealism, and pronouncements that range between the rational and the otherworldly.

I'm glad someone said that.  Dorothy quotes Obama:

"It is precisely our ideals that give us the strength and the moral high ground to be able to effectively deal with the unthinking violence that we see emanating from terrorist organizations around the world."

Dorothy wonders:

What can this mean? What moral high ground, exactly, would have enabled us to deter the designs of the religious fanatics in search of martyrdom and the slaughter of as many Americans as possible on September 11?

Hmm.  What gives this woman the right to ask intelligent questions?  Why doesn't she accept the wisdom and goodness of The One?

In this new day of our national salvation, then -- in a post 9/11 America that had seen 3,000 of its inhabitants murdered by terrorists -- it was now acceptable to characterize strenuous efforts to avert more such catastrophes as "expediency." It was not only acceptable, but proof of a higher moral intelligence.

The Obama campaign was always based on the idea that Obama and his legions have a higher moral intelligence, and a higher intelligence in every other area as well.  Why, just look at those sheepskins.

Mr. Obama, who has always been much better than his vocal supporters on the far left, better than the cadres in MoveOn.Org, is no extremist. Still, there is no reason to think that his views on security issues and Guantanamo and interrogations, his tendency to minimize the central importance of armed might, are not deeply rooted. They are clearly core beliefs.

And that, along with those trumpeting declarations to the world that new leadership had now come to the United States, that we were now a nation worthy of the world's trust -- those speeches suggesting that after years of darkness America had now been rescued, just barely, from the abyss -- will be in the end this president's Achilles' heel. Those are not, Mr. Obama may discover, tones that wear well in the course of a presidency.

COMMENT:  No, they don't wear well.  That will become apparent when Mr. Obama learns, to his anticipated horror, that hostile nations will not change their designs just because he is in the White House.  Only he can choose whether to become another Jimmy Carter, that very little man with the very big ego.  We hope he wakes up in time to choose wisely.

February 2, 2009.      Permalink          

THE GREGG DEAL - AT 7:30 A.M. ET:  Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a state with a Democratic governor, is apparently going to be named secretary of commerce.  We worried about that here because the addition of a Dem senator would bring the Democrats within one vote of the 60 they need to break a filibuster.  That vote could come if Al Franken were to win in Minnesota.  However, a deal has apparently been made with the governor of New Hampshire to appoint a Republican to succeed Gregg, easing the problem.  From The Washington Times:

President Obama was poised to tap Republican Sen. Judd Gregg as his commerce secretary, but officials cautioned Sunday the move would not deliver Democrats complete control of the Senate as they had hoped.

Leading the pack to replace the fiscal conservative was his former chief of staff and a veteran of the Reagan White House, Bonnie Newman. Officials expect New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, would name her to fill the final two years of Mr. Gregg's term. Miss Newman would not seek the seat for a full term in 2010.

The move would allow Mr. Gregg to join the Cabinet without giving Democrats' unchecked power in Congress. It also would spare him a difficult re-election bid.

COMMENT:  That eases our worries.  But the Democratic strength in the Senate makes clear the importance of the 2010 elections, which are just around the corner. 

STILL IN THE TANK - AT 7:17 A.M. ET:  There were hints in the first week of the Age of Obama that at least some journalists would start asking some tough questions of the administration.  But don't despair.  It was only a brief threat.  In-the-tank-for Obama journalism is roaring ahead.  In a Washington Post piece on Obama's view of bipartisanship, we are treated to this.  You will not believe:

To Obama, they said, fixing "broken politics" is less about making concessions just for the sake of finding common ground and more about elevating the debate -- replacing cynical gamesmanship and immature name-calling with intellectually honest arguments and respect for the other side's motives. In his book "The Audacity of Hope," Obama waxes nostalgic about the fellowship and vigorous debate of Congress's halcyon days in the mid-20th century more than about the centrist deals the era produced.

COMMENT:  Say what?  In other words, the results don't count.  Only the style counts.  Obama seems to feel, "I'll get everything I want, but I'll have a high-toned discussion with you."  Well, maybe someone should clue in the new president, informing him that the public expects results, not just intellectual posturing.  This isn't school.  The wars are real.  The bullets are real.  The economic slump is real.  Is our language too rough here, too unintellectual?  Tough.

IF YOU CAN MAKE IT HERE - AT 7:02 A.M.:  I hate to say it, as a New Yorker, but the culture of New York is so sick, so corrupt, that it even infects our museums.  The New York Post exposes the wild salaries paid to museum executives at the same time that programs and staff are being cut.  These museums receive huge subsidies from taxpayers:

City- and state-funded cultural institutions are cutting programs and slashing staff - even "firing" the Bronx Zoo's porcupine - and yet their CEO pay packages would make Wall Streeters blush.

The American Museum of Natural History, citing a budget crunch, laid off 50 workers last week, but its president, Ellen Futter, gets more than $1 million in compensation. And her perks include an Upper East Side apartment and a full-time maid, The Post has learned.

COMMENT:  Imagine, the head of a museum is paid two and a half times the salary of the president of the United States.  Of course, the fat-checkbook crowd that sits on the boards of these institutions will ask, "If we don't pay these salaries, how are we going to get good people?"  I mean, who would really work for half a mil?  The Post story has a chart showing other salaries in the city.  I haven't seen reports showing that any of these places are notably better than they were 20 years ago, when salaries were more sane.  This is a social disease, and taxpayers are expected to pay for it.

KENTUCKY ICE - AT 6:55 A.M. ET:  From the AP:

CANEYVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Thousands of National Guard troops swinging chainsaws cut their way into remote communities Sunday to reach residents stranded by a deadly ice storm, freeing some to get out of their driveways for the first time in nearly a week.

The soldiers went door-to-door handing out chili and beef stew rations to people cooped up in their powerless homes as authorities ratcheted up the relief effort for what Gov. Steve Beshear called the biggest natural disaster ever to hit the state.

COMMENT:  Is the White House interested in this?  Is the national media pursuing the story?  Where is FEMA?  Where are the reporters who wept and wailed over Katrina?  Why are there no questions about federal action?  If George W. Bush were in the White House, MSNBC would be suspending all programs to trash him every second.  Cold.  Indifferent to human suffering.  A Texas buffoon.  But now there are no questions asked.  It's much more important to get the president's view of the Super Bowl.  Kentucky just doesn't make the cut.