TUESDAY,  OCTOBER 13,  2009

THE JOURNALISM WE DEPEND ON - AT 10:12 P.M. ET:  By now the immediate world knows that the Senate Finance Committee passed a health-care "reform" bill today. 

Do I hear a drumroll?  No?  Well, I guess not.  And for good reason.  This is a smaller step for a man than Neil Armstrong took on the Moon.  But some elements of the press see the Ten Commandments handed down on Mount Sinai:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key U.S. Senate committee endorsed a sweeping healthcare overhaul on Tuesday, gaining the support of an influential Republican and delivering President Barack Obama a victory on his top domestic priority.

Now wait.  President Obama didn't win a thing.  This is one committee passing one version of one bill.  Other committees will have their own versions, and the House will have a few versions of its own.  It's not much of a victory for the president when the vote, in a committee controlled by his own party, was a foregone conclusion.

The Democratic-controlled Senate Finance Committee approved the measure by 14-9, with Senator Olympia Snowe becoming the first Republican in Congress to back a healthcare reform bill.

Sorry about that.  She is not the first Republican in Congress to back a health-care reform bill.  Other Republicans, like Tom Coburn, have stepped forward with ideas of their own.  Many Republicans have made it clear that they could back a bill that conformed to their standards. 

"Today we reached a critical milestone in our effort to reform our healthcare system," said Obama, who warned there were still big challenges ahead for healthcare reform.

Yeah, like getting Congress to agree on one bill.  You can't send a bunch up to the president, with little tabs attached, and say, "Decide."  Deciding isn't one of those skills he's aced.

The bill, the last of five pending health measures to clear a committee in Congress, will be merged with the Senate health panel's version for a floor vote.

They're not telling us too much about that other one.

Snowe, who had been courted by Obama and his fellow Democrats, said she backed the plan with reservations and could not guarantee her continued support as the overhaul advances.

Yeah, that's the little asterisk next to her vote. 

"My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," Snowe said.

In other words, court me.  Give me what I want.  We'll take Senator Snowe at her word that she reserves the right to oppose the final bill, which, if the trend leftward continues, is exactly what she should do.

There's a lot of combat ahead.  As Churchill said in another context, this isn't the end.  This isn't the beginning of the end.  It's the end of the beginning.

October 13, 2009    Permalink

WHAT? - AT 5:50 P.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton, as reported earlier, is in Moscow.  And what is she coming home with?  From Fox News:

Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads.

The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said publicly Tuesday that the two nations have made "considerable" progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty.

The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires in December and negotiators have been racing to reach agreement on a successor.

Clinton said the U.S. would be as transparent as possible.

"We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered," she said, calling missile defense "another area for deep cooperation between our countries."

COMMENT:  We have a right to know a lot more about this "agreement in principle" before we sign on the dotted line.  Just what are we getting in return for this intrusive inspection? 

I know it's more blessed to give than to receive.  But this administration is already, under that definition, super-blessed.  A little receiving isn't a bad thing.

Clinton made no progress on the Iran issue, the main purpose of her trip.  Do you get the feeling we're being rolled, once again?

October 13, 2009   Permalink

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE STUFF LIKE THIS? - AT 5:26 P.M. ET:  From KATU, Portland, Oregon:

ALBANY, Ore. - At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all.

Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag - he said - is his way of showing support.

"This flag stands for all those people," said Clausen, an Oaks Apartment resident. "It stands for the people that can no longer stand - who died in wars. That's why I fly this flag."

But to Oaks Apartment management, Clausen said, the American flag symbolizes problems.

He was told to remove the red, white and blue from both of his rides, or face eviction.

"It floored me," he said. "I can't believe she was saying what she was saying."

Even long-time residents like Sharron White, who has flown a flag on her car for eight years, has been told to take it down.

White said management told her that "someone might get offended."

COMMENT:  Yeah, someone might get offended.  We had the same problem after the 9-11 attacks, when some students tried to fly American flags from dorm windows on college campuses.  Heavens.  Someone might be offended, they were told, and were often ordered to take the flags down.

Many Americans need a refresher course in the First Amendment.  They also need a refresher course in common sense.  They might also look at a map, and notice that they're living in the United States, although some might regret it.

October 13, 2009   Permalink

YES, IT'S AN ILLUSION - AT 10:54 A.M. ET:  Many people don't realize that there was a stock-market rally between 1933 and 1937, at the height of the great Depression.  It had nothing whatever to do with the real economy.

Now, we have a repeat.  But wiser heads are warning about where all this is going:

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer and the manager of a portfolio of about $600 billion, expects stocks to fall because economic recovery is lagging behind the seven-month jump in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

“The market rally right now is -- my personal view is -- way ahead of real-life developments,” Paul Achleitner, head of finance at Munich-based Allianz, said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “The expectation level is so high, you’re going to have the risk that there’s going to be a discrepancy in expectation” and economic data, Achleitner said.

The S&P 500 has surged 58 percent from a 12-year low on March 9 amid signs the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression is abating. Still, unemployment in the U.S. climbed in September to 9.8 percent, the highest level since 1983, and economists expect a rebound in consumer spending will wane as joblessness surpasses 10 percent.

COMMENT:  The Obamans will pull out all stops, and write all kinds of hot checks, to produce some kind of recovery before next year's elections, but long-term prospects are very shaky, from everything I've seen in economic reports.  People are apprehensive.  Apprehensive people don't buy, and the banks aren't being helpful.

But, you know, Obama wants next year's Nobel Prize in economics, so he might spring something spectacular.

October 13, 2009   Permalink

A VERY GOOD QUESTION - AT 9:20 A.M. ET:  It was 20 years ago that the Soviet empire finally collapsed.  And yet, as Matt Welch points out in Reason magazine, we hardly note it.  But why?  Why don't we celebrate, as we commemorate the end of German and Japanese fascism in World War II?

On August 23, 1989, officials from the newly reformed and soon-to-be-renamed Communist Party of Hungary ceased policing the country’s militarized border with Austria. Some 13,000 East Germans, many of whom had been vacationing at nearby Lake Balaton, fled across the frontier to the free world. It was the largest breach of the Iron Curtain in a generation, and it kicked off a remarkable chain of events that ended 11 weeks later with the righteous citizen dismantling of the Berlin Wall.

Twenty years later, the anniversary of that historic border crossing was noted in exactly four American newspapers, according to the Nexis database, and all four mentions were in reprints of a single syndicated column.

I'm willing to bet that there's an entire young generation of journalists who never heard of the events mentioned above. 

November 1989 was the most liberating month of arguably the most liberating year in human history, yet two decades later the country that led the Cold War coalition against communism seems less interested than ever in commemorating, let alone processing the lessons from, the collapse of its longtime foe. At a time that fairly cries out for historical perspective about the follies of central planning, Americans are ignoring the fundamental conflict of the postwar world...

Gee, I wonder why.  You don't think the press is...tilted, do you?  Nah.  Not our journalists.  Why, every time I turn on MSNBC I marvel at the balance and thoughtfulness.

The consensus Year of Revolution for most of our lifetimes has been 1968, with its political assassinations, its Parisian protests, and a youth-culture rebellion that the baby boomers will never tire of telling us about.

Yeah, I'm afraid that's it.  Painted jeans trump a collapsing Berlin wall every time. 

There were only 69 electoral democracies in 1989; by 2008 their ranks had swelled to 119.

That occurred on America's watch, Mr. President.  No apologies necessary.  And maybe it's time for you to acknowledge the contributions of George W. Bush.

In the long fight between Karl Marx and Milton Friedman, even the democratic socialists of Europe had to admit that Friedman won in a landslide. Although media attention was rightly focused on the dramatic economic changes transforming Asia and the former East Bloc, fully half of the world’s privatization in the first dozen years after the Cold War, as measured by revenue, took place in Western Europe.

And now we are going in the other direction.  Real smart. 

The United States, at least as represented by its elected officials and their economic policies, is no longer leading the global fight for democratic capitalism as the most proven path to human liberation. You are more likely to see entitlement reform in Rome than in Washington (where, against the global grain, the federal government is trying to extend its role).

Not change we can believe in.  That comes after next year's election.

October 13, 2009   Permalink

AND NOW THE PREDICTABLE FAILURE - AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  The new Nobel peace laureate is finding out this morning just how much his prize is worth in the world outside student governments.  From AP:

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that the threat of sanctions against Iran would be counterproductive, resisting U.S. efforts to win agreement for measures if Iran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.

Didn't we just make a major concession to the Russians on East European missile defense?  I remember something about that.

Lavrov spoke following talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is trying to gauge Moscow's willingness to join the U.S. in imposing sanctions if Iran fails to come clean on its nuclear activities.

You've gauged it, Hil.  Now come home and tell the panderer-in-chief.  You went nowhere.

Lavrov said Russia's position is that under current conditions even the threat of sanctions against Iran would be counterproductive.

Clinton said the U.S. agreed it was important to pursue diplomacy with Iran.

''At the same time ... we have always looked at the potential of sanctions in the event we are not successful'' in persuading Iran to comply, she said at a joint news conference.

Another famous victory for the U.S. under Obama.  It's disgraceful.  Can this administration point to one success in its foreign policy?  Is it even looking for success, or just popularity among the international prize givers?

Why do I think I'm seeing a bad sequel to "High School Musical"?

Beyond Iran, Lavrov said the U.S. and Russia have made ''considerable'' progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty.

That's the piece of paper that Obama will wave, Chamberlain-like, in our faces, as he brings us peace in our time...for a few minutes.

October 13, 2009   Permalink

FASCINATING - AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  Some would call it a triumph of hope over experience, but some black Republicans believe next year will be their year.  From Fox News:

Allen West, a retired Army colonel who is running for the second time against Democratic Rep. Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd congressional district, West, is one of a small but determined group of black Republicans running for seats in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives in 2010.

When former President Jimmy Carter said racism was an underlying factor in attacks on President Obama, it's safe to say he had no intention of boosting Allen West's campaign for Congress in Florida's Broward County.

But according to West, a retired Army colonel who is running for the second time against Democratic Rep. Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd congressional district, that is exactly what has happened.

"Since (Democrats) have thrown out the race card, it has made me more appealing," says West, one of a small but determined group of black Republicans running for seats in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives in 2010.

Eager to overturn the "conventional wisdom" that the GOP is mainly a white bread party that offers few opportunities for minorities, these black Republicans believe they can attract increasingly agitated conservatives, as well as independents, to make 2010 their year.

COMMENT:  The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, is an African-American, so the timing here might be right.  But black Republicans have not fared very well in recent decades in the party of Lincoln, and there are still bitter memories of Pat Buchanan and his "southern strategy" racialism of the 1960s.  There is also the reality of Colin Powell, ostensibly a Republican, having endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.

The so-called "black vote" is almost monolithically Democratic, even though the Democratic Party has done little for blacks, while talking the talk.  An imaginative campaign to peel off African-American voters by showing the advantages of conservative policies could revolutionize American politics.  Let's see if the Republicans can wake up and smell the victory.

October 13, 2009   Permalink

THE NOT SO ALMIGHTY DOLLAR - AT 7:40 A.M. ET:  As The One prepares to learn the basics of Norwegian currency, the better to enjoy his upcoming trip to Oslo to pick up the Prize, our dollar is taking a beating on world markets.  Most Americans are unaware of it, but this could hurt:

Ben Bernanke's dollar crisis went into a wider mode yesterday as the greenback was shockingly upstaged by the euro and yen, both of which can lay claim to the world title as the currency favored by central banks as their reserve currency.

Over the last three months, banks put 63 percent of their new cash into euros and yen -- not the greenbacks -- a nearly complete reversal of the dollar's onetime dominance for reserves, according to Barclays Capital. The dollar's share of new cash in the central banks was down to 37 percent -- compared with two-thirds a decade ago.

Currently, dollars account for about 62 percent of the currency reserve at central banks -- the lowest on record, said the International Monetary Fund.

COMMENT:  The impact here is as much psychological as economic.  The Obama crowd tell us that it has "restored" American prestige, but there is precious little to show for it.  The dollar's decline tells us what's happening in the real world, and it could have a strong impact on the perception of the United States as a weakening power.

To the "multicultural" left, this means nothing.  For the sane part of the population, it should be a matter of concern.

October 13,  2009   Permalink

MONDAY,  OCTOBER 12,  2009

ANOTHER EDUCATOR SPEAKS - AT 10:30 P.M. ET:  Remember those kids in New Jersey who were forced to sing a song praising Barack Obama?  We learned about it only because a video was posted on YouTube.

Well, the school district conducted an investigation - very deep, very deep, very Sherlockian - and came to brilliant conclusions, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

The superintendent of a South Jersey school district stands behind the student performance of songs about President Obama that created a national stir last month.

The video that captured the children is another matter.

In other words, what the school did was correct.  Their only crime was getting caught at it.

Burlington Township Superintendent Christopher Manno today discussed the results of an internal investigation concerning the controversial songs.

Yeah, I can just see them, on their knees, dusting for Obamaprints.

He and Denise King, principal of B. Bernice Young Elementary School, were "deeply disturbed" by the YouTube.com posting of a video that featured second-graders at the school, he said. He added that he had apologized to the students' parents at a recent meeting.

The video was taken on March 23 during an "impromptu" performance of two tunes the youngsters learned in honor of Black History Month for a school assembly in February, Manno said. The lyrics, which describe Obama's accomplishments and his views on equality, are punctuated with the recitation of the president's name, Barack Hussein Obama.

Just a patriotic song.  Kind of like "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

The school had sent the songs' lyrics to parents in advance and received no complaints before or after the assembly, which family members attended, Manno said.

Yeah, I can just imagine how a complaint would have been received. 

The principal did, to his credit, caution teachers about appearing to take political stands, but it was a vague statement.  The offenders didn't even get the traditional slap on the wrist.

We know that our colleges have been politicized.  What many Americans don't realize is that "educators" are working on the high schools and elementary schools as well. 

Parents have a right, and an obligation, to examine what the schools are doing.  They are, after all, called "public schools."  And parents have the same right to complain as to cheer at a school soccer match.

October 12, 2009   Permalink

ESCALATION IN PAKISTAN - AT 7:03 P.M. ET:  While the president of the United States arranges for wall space in the Oval Office to place his many awards and tributes, the real world boils.  There's been a clear escalation of violence in Pakistan in recent days while Washington tries to figure out a South Asia strategy that will make Obama look good and still not offend his legions of leftist groupies.

Pakistan, with its nuclear arsenal, may well become destabilized.  What will we be told by the administration then?  From the Washington Post:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 12 -- A suicide bomber apparently targeting Pakistani soldiers killed 41 people Monday in the most recent in a string of bloody attacks on high-profile targets.

The blast, which occurred near an army convoy at a security checkpoint, took place at a market in the northwestern district of Shangla and killed mostly civilians. The area is near the Swat Valley, an area where a brutal Taliban presence was flushed out by Pakistani troops earlier this year.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's bombing, whose force was multiplied when it also detonated explosives being carried in army vehicles, said Shangla Police Chief Jehanzeb Khan. It came a day after Pakistani commandos ended a 22-hour standoff with armed Islamist fighters who had taken 42 hostages at Pakistan's army headquarters.

COMMENT:  Secretary Clinton assured us yesterday that the Pakistani nuclear arsenal is secure.  Tomorrow she's scheduled to announce that her husband is a virgin.

October 12, 2009   Permalink

WELCOME TO MOSCOW, HILLARY.  HAVE A VODKA - AT 6:33 P.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton, as we noted earlier, zips to Moscow today for another feel-good session with a group of guys who probably talk to Stalin in their dreams. 

And the Russkies are ready with their usual charm, good will, and desire to cooperate with America.  AP reports the love fest:

MOSCOW -- A top Russian general aimed tough remarks at the United States on Monday before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit, reconfirming plans for multiple-warhead missiles and warning Washington that refitting rockets with conventional warheads would raise the risk of nuclear war.

Lt. Gen. Andrei Shvaichenko's comments, quoted by Russian news agencies, come as Moscow and Washington seek to negotiate a replacement for a 1991 arms control treaty that expires at the end of the year. It is a major element in their efforts to mend relations that were badly strained during the Bush administration.

I just love it - "...badly strained during the Bush administration."  You see, it's BUSH (!!).  He's the one!  If it weren't for BUSH (!!) the whole world would do everything we want it to do.

Mrs. Clinton meets Tuesday with President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Her visit will test Russia's willingness to cooperate on issues, including arms control and Iran's nuclear program, in the wake of President Obama's recent decision to scrap a missile-defense plan that Moscow vehemently opposed.

Gen. Shvaichenko's words appeared designed to remind the United States of Russia's nuclear might and press it to heed Moscow's concerns.

COMMENT:  Can't you just wait for the outcome?  Can't you just wait for the explanations as to why there's really been no progress?

What must be going through Hillary's mind, as she's reduced to the level of a messenger girl for Obama's academic exercises in futility?

But, hey, she's got to provide fodder for the Nobel speech, so maybe there'll be a little something to sign, or a pledge of "further exploration of mutual concerns."

October 12, 2009   Permalink

WELCOME TO THE RECOVERY - AT 6:22 P.M. ET:    See all those vacant stores?  Hear of friends who suddenly close businesses?  All the administration's yapping about the "recovery," and all the artificial profits on Wall Street can't counteract the reality of the economy, as The New York Times reports:

Many small and midsize American businesses are still struggling to secure bank loans, impeding their expansion plans and constraining overall economic growth, even as the country tentatively rises from its recessionary depths.

Most banks expect their lending standards to remain tighter than the levels of the last decade until at least the middle of 2010, according to a survey of senior loan officers conducted by the Federal Reserve Board.

The enduring credit squeeze appears to reflect an aversion to risk among lenders confronting great uncertainty about the economy rather than any lingering effects of the panic that gripped financial markets last fall, after the collapse of the investment banking giant Lehman Brothers.

You can be sure that the powers that be will be pressuring banks to loosen up just before next year's midterm elections.  If that happens, we may see some magical, if temporary, improvement in the economy, just as last year we saw some magical collapse right before the election.  Hmm.

“It’s quite significant, because small businesses generate significant job growth,” said Andrew Tilton, a senior economist at Goldman Sachs. “And small businesses rely more on bank financing, whereas large businesses have the alternative of raising money in the capital markets.”

COMMENT:  We are far from out of the woods, and new, crazed ideas, coming from liberal Democrats in Washington would have the federal government spend trillions more.

The issue is not simply a recovery in the next few years, but what will happen to America in the next 30 years, with this overwhelming debt that the Obama administration and its congressional allies are building up.

October 12, 2009   Permalink

POLL EFFECTS OF THE NOBEL - AT 9:38 A.M. ET:  The Rasmussen tracker published this morning is the first wherein all the polling was taken after the announcement of Obama's Nobel Prize.  And what effect did it have?  Well, read on:

Daily updates are based upon nightly telephone surveys and reported on a three day rolling average basis. As a result, today is the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Obama. The award seems to have had little impact on public opinion among likely voters. His total approval was at 49% just before the award was announced and it is at 49% today.

There does seem to be a slight increase in intensity. Since the prize was awarded, the number who Strongly Approve of the President’s performance has increased by three percentage points and the number who Strongly Disapprove has increased by five. The number with strong opinions on both sides is at the highest level in a month.

COMMENT:  I love the report that the number for those who "strongly disapprove" went up by five after the award, whereas "strongly approve" increased by only three. 

Ah, these Americans are so discerning.  Don't sell them short. 

October 12, 2009   Permalink

ANOTHER JOKE CONTINUES - AT 9:23 A.M. ET:  North Korea, not to be outdone by its Iranian counterpart in crime, greets the awarding of the Nobel Prize to President Obama in its usual, warm way:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea fired five short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, a news report said, even as South Korea proposed working-level talks with its communist neighbor.

Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the North test-fired the missiles on Monday afternoon from its eastern coastal launch pad.

Yonhap said the North has issued a no-sail zone in an area off the east coast Oct. 10-20 -- an apparent indication it was planning missile tests.

COMMENT:  We've made about as much progress with North Korea as we have with Iran, but nothing much is being done about it. 

What we see, with Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, the continuing conflict in Iraq, Venezuela, increased tensions with Russia, and a recalcitrant China, is a steady buildup of crises for President Obama.  So far, he's batting zero in all of them. 

October 12, 2009   Permalink

THE JOKE CONTINUES - AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  The joke is our "negotiations" with Iran over its nuclear program.  The Iranians again are setting us straight on exactly what those "negotiations" mean to them:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran dismissed on Monday a U.S. warning that major powers would not wait forever for Tehran to prove it was not developing nuclear bombs, saying any threats or deadlines would have no impact on the Islamic Republic.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, speaking a week before talks on a proposal to send Iranian uranium abroad for further processing, also reiterated Iran's refusal to discuss its "nuclear rights" with the six world powers.

"We have announced several times that we have nothing to discuss regarding that," he told a Tehran news conference in comments translated by Iran's state Press TV...

...Such comments were likely to fan Western suspicions that Iran is seeking to win time by stringing out inconclusive talks while mastering nuclear technology and stockpiling enriched uranium of potential use for atomic energy or weaponry.

COMMENT:  Yeah, I'd say those remarks would fan suspicions - except, maybe, in the mind of our Nobel peace laureate.

And what will our Nobel guy do when it becomes obvious that the Iranians are just stalling?  Well, Hillary Clinton is on a magical mystery tour right now to get support for a tough line on Iran.  But her next stop is Moscow, as AP reports:

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton travels to Russia on Monday hoping to win Moscow's backing for a strong stance on Iran's nuclear program and looking for progress on a new arms control pact.

American officials say Iran will be at or near the top of Clinton's agenda when she meets Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday. She plans to push for Russian support for new sanctions on Iran if it doesn't comply with demands to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.

COMMENT:  Lotsa luck, Hil.  The Russians now know they're dealing with a president, a supreme egotist, who wouldn't want to upset the glow around his Nobel Prize with any action that could upset the Norwegian left.

And Hillary must be seething.

I love the AP phraseology:  "American officials say Iran will be at or near the top of Clinton's agenda..."

Near the top?  Is anything more important than stopping the Iranian nuclear program?  Well, to some Obamans a tiny arms-control agreement might be more important, because then The One can wave a piece of paper before the American people and announce what he's done for "peace."  I put nothing past him.

October 12, 2009    Permalink

NOTED NUCLEAR PHYSICIST IS AL QAEDA GUY - SLEEP WELL TONIGHT - AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerted us to an earlier version of this story:

An internationally renowned nuclear physicist has admitted to French investigators that he led a second life as an al-Qa'ida "mole", according to French judicial sources.

A picture began to emerge over the weekend of Adlène Hicheur, 32, who works at the "Big Bang" hadron collider on the Swiss-French border, and who is likely to be formally accused today of having "links with a terrorist organisation". However, his brother, Zitouni Hicheur, 25, who was arrested with him last Thursday at their parents' home just south of Lyon, has been released. Investigators believe the elder brother – who has worked on high-level, nuclear research projects in Britain and the United States – acted alone when he sent emails to Algerian members of al- Qa'ida and listed potential terrorist targets in France.

COMMENT:  The French are great at counter-terror, and, sad to say, seem to treat the subject more seriously than we do. 

I hope that we'll now have fewer charges of "fear mongering" directed at those who want to keep the threat of terror actively before the American people.

October 12, 2009   Permalink

TWO AMERICANS WIN NOBEL IN ECONOMICS, FOR ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING - AT 7:42 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times: 

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was awarded on Monday to two Americans for their work in economic governance.

The prize committee cited Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons” and Oliver E. Williamson of the University of California, Berkeley “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.”

Overwhelmingly, the Nobel Prizes for actual accomplishment went this year to Americans.  Some ten Nobels, other than the unmentionable "peace" prize, were won by Americans, some native-born, some immigrants who chose America.  It is simply overwhelming.

That Nobel accomplishment, actually written before the economics prize was awarded this morning, led editorialist Mark Watson of the North Star Journal to write:

Perhaps the apologist-in-chief Peace Prize winner, who has only been able to find fault with America and Americans during his travels abroad, might now recognize that his country and its citizens engage in actions that benefit the entire world. He might also reflect upon the fact that more than half of American Nobel Prize recipients aspired to become citizens of the country he so willingly finds fault with when traveling.

Maybe, Mr. President, it’s time to just stop apologizing for this exceptionally gifted, generous, open and non-imperialist country and concentrate on all the benefits it has given to the world. If your history education has failed to educate you on the many great things this country has achieved, why not stop campaigning for re-election and read Dr. Bill Bennett’s two-volume history exposition, America: The Last Best Hope.

Or better yet, stop trying to reinvent this country with your attempts to take over its institutions and concentrate on building upon its foundation of personal liberty, limited government and opportunity. Even though your wife has only recently become proud of her country, most Americans have been proud of the U.S. their entire lives.

Isn’t it time for America to again have a president who is proud of the country he leads?

Very well said. 

October 12, 2009   Permalink

BULLETIN - AT 7:29 A.M. ET:  From AP:

2012 ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD, MAYANS INSIST

Just thought you'd like to know, especially if you have 30-year Treasury bills.

October 12,  2009   Permalink