SATURDAY,  OCTOBER 31,  2009

THE LAST GREAT HOPE - AT 10:56 P.M. ET:  It's reported that President Obama is pulling out all stops for profoundly unpopular Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey, whose head is on the chopping block in Tuesday's election.  The president will be back in the state campaigning for Corzine, and Corzine is expressing his passionate love for the president, as The New York Times lovingly reports:

NEWARK — In the final hours of this intensely fought campaign, supporters of Gov. Jon S. Corzine are knocking on doors here with a message for people who voted for Barack Obama: Your president needs you.

In an effort they are calling “Yes We Can 2.0,” Corzine campaign officials are devoting millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers to try to bring back to the polls those 442,000 New Jersey residents who had never voted before Mr. Obama’s election last November. They are flooding them with phone calls, mail and text messages, hoping to contact each of them at least eight times before Tuesday.

With the president significantly more popular than Mr. Corzine in New Jersey, the governor has lashed himself to Mr. Obama, and will appear beside him Sunday on the president’s third visit to the state to campaign on Mr. Corzine’s behalf.

Whether the first-time Obama voters turn out could make a crucial difference in this race, with most polls showing Mr. Corzine and his Republican opponent, Christopher J. Christie, still running neck and neck two days before the election.

COMMENT:  Let us translate the above into everyday English:  The story means either one of two things:  1) Late polls show Corzine has a good chance of winning, and Obama wants to be known as the man who came into the state and saved the governor, or 2) late polls show Corzine in trouble, and Obama wants to throw a Hail Mary pass to try to save him, knowing that governorship losses in both Virginia and New Jersey would be humiliating to the president, the titular head of his party.

I don't think there's a third possibility. 

There is an implied subtext to this contest, and it's race.  The close, passionate identification with the president sends a signal to New Jersey's large African-American population that it owes Obama the loyalty of turnout...so he won't be embarrassed on election day.  That's a powerful message.

My own guess, and it's only a semi-informed guess, is that Corzine will pull it out, primarily because there's a third candidate running who's draining votes from the Republican, Chris Christie.  Dems have a way of holding New Jersey, sometimes by the neck.  But we could be pleasantly surprised.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

THE ASSAULT ON FOX NEWS - AT 6:23 P.M. ET:  Strategic analyst Ralph Peters, writing in the New York Post, examines the administration's assault on Fox News, and finds it of a piece with leftist attacks on the press worldwide.  (Note:  The New York Post is owned by News Corporation, which also owns Fox News.):

The Obama administration's un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network's popularity. But this White House debacle can't be judged in isolation: There's a global left-wing assault on the freedom of information.

Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn't enough. Extremists seek total control.

True.  And there are leftist journalists who would give up their freedoms if it meant their side wins.

The Obama administration's aborted Fox hunt simply aligned our government with the hounds of the global left. Our Constitution and common sense frustrated the White House apparatchiks -- but other leftist and radical regimes are crushing press freedoms, murdering dissenting journalists and turning the media into a state weapon.

In country after country where Obama's been tapping re-set buttons, the media are under assault:

Peters lists Russia, Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, and Egypt.  In each case, Peters says, "Obama looks away."

So the White House temper tantrum over the popularity of Fox News is perfectly understandable: It's just leftists being leftists. They fear that left-wing theories, long discredited in practice, will die like vampires if exposed to the light of day.

For decades, the left has "owned" our media (as well as our schools and universities). Even today, Fox News remains the single national voice of dissent in television. Every other broadcast or cable network that presents the news demonstrates a left-of-center bias, from the button-down liberalism of ABC through the soft-core activism of CNN to the screwball extremism of MSNBC.

If the left's vision for humanity is so superior, you'd think leftists could live with alternative views. But the left is totalitarian at heart and can no more tolerate debate than al Qaeda's fanatics can accept religious diversity.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  In addition to the left being totalitarian, it is also juvenile, representing an adolescent view of the world.  Ever try arguing with an adolescent?

While the attack on Fox has been condemned by many responsible journalists, others have remained silent, the better to be in with the in group. 

And we may not have seen the last of this kind of assault.  The FCC - Obama's FCC - may well have some ideas about talk radio down the line. 

And again, there is silence in the very precincts where we have a right to expect outrage - the universities, the law schools, the so-called "civil liberties" organizations.  There's a lot of mislabeling of groups going on.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

BIG TROUBLE IN RUG COUNTRY - AT 5:44 P.M. ET:  The main challenger in Afghanistan's runoff election for president is scheduled to pull out of the contest, throwing its legitimacy into confusion, and complicating American efforts:

KABUL — President Hamid Karzai's challenger plans to call for a boycott of next weekend's runoff election, hoping to force a delay until spring to allow time to organize a fair vote, his campaign manager said Saturday.

In the meantime, ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah wants an interim government to run the country, Satar Murad told The Associated Press.

Abdullah has called a press conference for 10 a.m. Sunday to announce his final decision after Afghans and Westerners close to the challenger said he would withdraw from the second round scheduled for Nov. 7. His campaign manager said the candidate might still change his mind, but that "as of now" he planned to call for a boycott.

That decision came after Karzai rejected a series of Abdullah's demands, including removal of the top three election officials allegedly linked to widespread fraud in the Aug. 20 balloting.

At the same time, there is news that President Obama has asked for still more troop requirement studies from the Pentagon, hoping to whittle down General McChrystal's request to something, apparently, that the far left in Obama's party can live with.

Obama has now compromised McChrystal so much, and humiliated him so much, that it's hard to see any honorable way for McChrystal to stay on.  The president seems to be making Democratic Party decisions rather than national decisions.  We will not be safer for his effort, if there is any effort involved.

October 31, 2009    Permalink

BULLETIN - AT 11:53 A.M. ET:   There has been a remarkable development in the most closely watched off-year congressional election in the country.

In New York's 23rd Congressional District, the establishment Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, has suspended her campaign, meaning that the conservative vote on Tuesday won't be split.  NBC's Chuck Todd reports:

As first reported by the Watertown Daily Times, the Republican nominee in the New York 23rd Congressional special election, Dede Scozzafava, announced this morning she's suspending her campaign. Her exit leaves Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, who had garnered plenty of national GOP support, as the favorite to win what was a hotly-contested 3-way race. Republicans had feared that Hoffman and Scozzafava would split the Republican vote in this somewhat competitive district and hand the seat to Democrat Bill Owens. Former Republican Congressman John McHugh resigned his seat earlier this year after he was named by Pres. Obama to be the Secretary of the Army.

COMMENT:  It's a moderate Republican district, but Scozzafava is left of moderate, which annoyed conservatives, who got behind Hoffman, in a revolt.  Assuming Hoffman brings in most of Scozzafava's vote, he'll win.

But the race may leave some bitterness within the party.  True, Scozzafava was hardly a model Republican candidate.  But many national Republicans, including Sarah Palin, stepped in to boost the Conservative Party alternative.  To what degree should national figures try to influence a local race, run by the local party, which knows the district?  This will be debated.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

MEANWHILE, IN DETROIT - AT 11:27 A.M. ET:  Did anyone notice that there was a major anti-terror raid in Detroit this week, in which a radical Islamic leader was killed?  Okay, so it's not American Idol, but it's something.

Reader Alan Bell has been keeping us up to date on the terror beat, and alerts us to this, from National Review Online, which points out that, while the group involved had not yet committed a terrorist act, the clock was ticking:

None of these people had committed a terrorist act yet, at least to our current knowledge, but people who believe in violent jihad against their fellow citizens and train in the use of firearms are just a small step from becoming terrorists. After all, the shariah law that they dreamed of imposing on the ummah that they fancied gives only three options to infidels: Convert to Islam, submit to Muslim rule and discrimination, or be killed.

And...

...the slain leader of this group, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, was a high official of the top national organization of African-American Muslims, the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), a group founded and led by radical Islamists such as the notorious Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj.

The larger group to which Abdullah and his cohorts belonged and pledged allegiance, the “national community” of Imam Jamil al-Amin, a.k.a. H. Rap Brown, also enjoys an excellent standing in the American Muslim establishment, despite the inconvenient fact that the good imam is a convicted cop-killer serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Yes, we remember H. Rap Brown from his Black Panther days.

It is this disturbing reality of an American Muslim establishment in charge of countless mosques, Islamic cultural centers, madrassas, and charity organizations dominated by radical Islamist ideology and funded by Saudi money that Washington — under both Bush and now Obama — has long refused to acknowledge or do anything about in a systematic way. Until that happens, homegrown terrorism is not a matter of if but of when.

COMMENT:  Correct.  But only when "when" occurs will the press start paying major attention.  And even then, a good chunk of journalists will use the event to explain the "root causes," right out of the sixties handbook.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

WHOOPS - AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  The Politico reported a few days ago that Sarah Palin was asking $100,000 for a political speech in Iowa, before the Iowa Family Policy Center.  Iowan feathers were mighty ruffled, as politicians who have presidential aspirations normally do Iowa for zip.  Chattering classes chattered that Palin wasn't running in 2012, or didn't know the rules.

But, as reader Tom Wharton alerts us, it may have been a $100,000 misunderstanding.  Newsweek's "The Gaggle" reports:

...did Palin actually ask the group to pay $100K for her appearance? An IFPC spokesman tells Martin he's "not personally aware" of a speaker's fee. "There may or may not be, I don't know," he tells Politico. For their part, the Palin camp tells NEWSWEEK there's no fee. Meg Stapleton, Palin's spokeswoman, tells your Gaggler that Palin "has not requested anything" and that she "does not charge people to campaign for them."

Besides...

"We don't believe she will be able to attend with her tightly scheduled book tour, and the group has been told that through formal and informal channels," Stapleton says in an e-mail this morning. "However, it appears that some enthusiastic members are willing to try anything to entice the governor as we look at her schedule."

COMMENT:  Our Sarah, no gouger is she.  I'm glad she didn't commit a political sin.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

WHAT STIMULUS? - AT 10:23 A.M. ET:  We were told that the president's stimulus package was heavy with public-works projects, the kind of things that employ construction workers and get the economy moving.

Not so fast, economic wizards.

Turns out the details are a bit different:

The best symbol of the $787 billion federal stimulus program turns out not to be a construction worker in a hard hat, but rather a classroom teacher saved from a layoff.

On Friday, the Obama administration released the most detailed information yet on the jobs created by the stimulus. Of the 640,239 jobs recipients claimed to have created or saved so far, officials said, more than half — 325,000 — were in education. Most were teachers’ jobs that states said were saved when stimulus money averted a need for layoffs.

Can you say "teachers unions"?  Go ahead, say it.

Although the stimulus was initially sold in large part as a public works program, only about 80,000 of the jobs that were claimed Friday were in construction.

We love teachers here, but I see more shenanigan than stimulus.  Schools can usually squeeze with a few fewer teachers, but if that road or bridge doesn't get built, it doesn't get built. 

There may be more hard-hat projects next year, but let's see.  Why do I think the money will go where Deem politicians want it to go?

October 31, 2009   Permalink

THREE DAYS TO GO - AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  Most interesting last-minute polling is in New Jersey, where the governorship race is a dead heat.  All late poll results are inside the margin of error. I still expect the disliked incumbent governor, Democrat Jon Corzine, to pull it out because it's a Dem state and the Dems control the election machinery, but, hey, you never know.  If the GOP guy, Chris Christie, can topple Corzine, they'll be preparing Molotov cocktails in the White House.

Also a dead-heat is New York's 23rd Congressional District, where it's now come down to a race between the Dem candidate, Bill Owens, and the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman.  The establishment GOP candidate, Dede Scozzafava, has fallen into an embarrassing third place in this normally Republican district.  If Hoffman surges to victory, he's a new right-wing hero.  If he splits the vote just enough for Dem Owens to win, he's a goat.

Virginia is safely GOP in the governor's column unless all GOP voters get the flu by Tuesday.

Mike Bloomberg is safe for a third term as mayor of New York, keeping the Dems out of power in this overwhelmingly Democratic city for 20 years.  There isn't a Democratic meter maid left in the city.  The ones now can actually read the meters.

October 31,  2009   Permalink

FRIDAY,  OCTOBER 30,  2009

THE DETAILS START COMING - AT 5:20 P.M. ET:  Hat tip to Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit for this:

It figures. The Pelosi Plan will punish states that limit trial lawyers’ winnings.
Capital Confidential reported this at Big Government:

Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.

Tort reform could save the country $54 billion.
So it only makes sense that democrats would oppose it.

COMMENT:  The nation is likely to be stunned when the details of this 2,000-page life-and-death bill start to come out.  And the American people will be justifiably furious at "journalists" who have not reported those details.

There's a reason why the bill is 2,000 pages, and it has nothing to do with getting X-rays.  One fundamental principle of leftist politics is to overwhelm the system - to paralyze it with paperwork, costs and dependents - in the hope of bringing it down and replacing it.  That's what you're seeing in action.

October 30, 2009     Permalink  

AND NOW, AS FRANK SANG IT, THE END IS NEAR - AT 4:38 P.M. ET:  In our relations with Iran, that is.  And Mr. Obama may finally be learning that he's not heading up a student government:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Frustrated by Iran's continued defiance of demands to come clean on its nuclear program, the Obama administration is leaning toward imposing new sanctions, even if it must act alone.

Administration officials acknowledged growing concern that there may not be international consensus to expand the existing U.N. sanctions, despite Tehran's apparent rejection of a confidence-building measure proposed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog in hopes of making progress on the nuclear issue.

Wait.  Now wait.  Weren't we told that we were resetting our relations with Russia?  I guess that reset button was a factory reject.  And didn't we give up missile defense in Eastern Europe for better cooperation with Moscow?  I guess they didn't get the e-mail.  And isn't the world helping us because The One is in the White House?  I guess the world didn't get its instructions.

To that end, the administration is quietly supporting legislation in Congress that would give President Barack Obama a broad new array of authority to target Iran's energy sector by penalizing foreign firms that sell and ship refined petroleum products to Iran. The regime is heavily dependent on gasoline, kerosene and propane imports.

It is probably too late.  Iran is known to be laying plans to make up any shortfall.

The legislation would also allow the administration to go after insurance and reinsurance concerns that cover oil tankers and their cargo. And the U.S. could also target companies that provide Iran with covert technology used to crack down on protesters and democracy advocates as it did during demonstrations this summer after a disputed national election.

We saw the good that did.  As Johnny Carson used to ask, "Notice the difference?"

COMMENT:  The administration's policy with Iran is a shambles, made so by flashing weakness rather than strength.

And the question that really bothers the appeasement set:  How long will the Israelis wait before taking action, and ruining our day?

October 30, 2009    Permalink  

STUNNING...AND SICKENING - AT 4:25 P.M. ET:  One of the great fears expressed when President Obama was named this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner was that the prize would affect his conduct of American foreign policy.  Our fear, apparently, was justified.  From AFP:

Moscow and Washington want to reach a deal on a key nuclear disarmament treaty before US President Barack Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, a Kremlin source was quoted as saying Friday.

The source, quoted in the Kommersant daily, said the Obama administration wanted to sign an agreement on replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) before the Nobel ceremony and that Moscow was willing to oblige.

"On December 10 the ceremony for awarding Nobel laureates will take place... Our partners want the document to be signed before the Nobel Peace Prize is given to Barack Obama," the Kremlin source was quoted as saying.

"We are not against this," he added, according to Kommersant.

Russian and US negotiators have been discussing a new pact to replace START, a landmark 1991 treaty that led to deep cuts in the two countries' nuclear arsenals, before it expires on December 5.

A deal on START would mark a major foreign policy success for Obama and would boost his stated vision of a world free of atomic weapons.

By coincidence, the treaty's expiration date comes just five days before Obama is due to visit Oslo to accept his Nobel Peace Prize.

COMMENT:  What can one say?  Our safety is dependent on the conduct of our national-security policy.  Look who's conducting it.  And look at the values and ethics implied by this story.

October 30, 2009   Permalink

IF HELD TODAY - AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  Interesting results from a Fox poll, essentially rerunning the 2008 election.  Reported by Politics Daily:

Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election by 53 percent to 46 percent but when voters were asked how he would have done if they knew what they knew now that ratio changes to 48 percent to 41 percent, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted Oct. 27-28.

In other words, he would still win, but would not get a majority of the vote.  However, the opposition drops as well, indicating, as we have warned, that the Republican Party remains unpopular and cannot depend on Obama mistakes for its future.

That said, when asked how satisfied with what Obama has accomplished as president, 56 percent said they were very or somewhat satisfied while 43 percent said they were somewhat or not satisfied.

When asked whether Obama is meeting or exceeding expectations, or falling below expectation, 40 percent said he is meeting them, 8 percent say he is exceeding them, 47 percent saying he is falling below expectations and 4 percent say it is too soon to tell.

There are some mixed results here, depending on what question is asked. 

Forty-four percent believe Obama is keeping promises he made during his campaign while 39 percent said he was breaking them, 8 percent said it was too soon to tell, 5 percent said he was keeping some and breaking others, and 4 percent were undecided.

But despite Obama's message of change during the campaign, 56 percent say what's going on in Washington is more of the same compared to 39 percent who believe there has been real change.

COMMENT:  Obama is showing political weakness.  The shine is gone.  But the White House political machine is effective and brutal, and Republicans still have not come up with a winning formula to turn the trends around.  As columnist Tony Blankley puts it, Republicans cannot vote "present" on the country's future.  Can anyone actually describe the GOP agenda? 

The 2010 midterms are critical.  A week is a lifetime in politics.  No one should be content simply because the current trends are going our way.

October 30, 2009    Permalink

FOUR DAYS TO GO - AT 9:05 A.M. ET:  This year's off-year elections are four days away.  Unless something really goes wrong, the GOP should win an easy victory in the Virginia governorship, now held by Tim Kaine, the Democratic national chairman.  (Ah, revenge is sweet.)

In New Jersey, the governorship is a tossup, thanks to a third-party candidate who's taking votes away from the Republican challenger to unpopular Governor Jon Corzine.  My guess:  Corzine will pull it out, with a bit of help from little ACORNS.  I hope I'm wrong.

In California, San Fran area, a Dem is the easy winner in a congressional race. 

In New York City, Mayor Mike Bloomberg should sail to a third term, meaning no Democrat will have been elected mayor in heavily Democratic New York in 20 years. 

But the juiciest race is in upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District, where an upstart conservative is challenging the GOP's establishment candidate, a woman who is slightly to the left of Leon Trotsky.  The election is being held to fill the seat vacated by a Republican congressman who resigned to become secretary of the army.

It now appears that the upstart, with endorsements from Sarah Palin, New York Governor George Pataki, and others, has a real shot, as Michael Barone reports:

The special election in the 23rd congressional district of New York increasingly looks like a two-man race, with the woman candidate, Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava, skittering into third place. Yesterday I referenced Mark Blumenthal’s analysis of two polls, both commissioned by supporters of Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman, showing Hoffman ahead of Democratic nominee Bill Owens, with Scozzafava well behind. I agreed with Blumenthal’s conclusion that there was nothing indicating the polls were bogus, though polls in any special election, especially one with three candidates, need to be viewed with caution.

Now comes a third poll which tends to confirm those two, and this one was commissioned not by Hoffman supporters but by the pro-Democratic website Daily Kos; moreover, Kos himself endorsed Scozzafava. This one shows Owens leading Hoffman, but by the statistically insignificant margin of 33%-32%, with only 21% for Scozzafava. Averaging the three polls together, we get Hoffman 33%, Owens 30% and Scozzafava 18%. It sure looks like a two-man race to me.

COMMENT:  We'll be blogging through Tuesday night's returns, and will follow this closely.  It's unusual for any conservative in New York to create excitement, but if Hoffman wins he becomes an instant hot property.

October 30, 2009    Permalink

NOT ENTIRELY CONFIRMED, BUT INTRIGUING - AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  Pakistani troops have made a fascinating discovery during a sweep:

SHERWANGAI, Pakistan — Pakistani soldiers battling their way into a Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border have seized passports that may be linked to 9/11 suspects, as they confront an enemy skilled in operating in a mountainous terrain with endless ways to wage a guerrilla war.

The military on Thursday took foreign and local journalists for a first look inside the largely lawless territory since it launched a ground offensive here in mid-October. The U.S.-backed operation is focused on a section of the tribal region where the Pakistani Taliban are based and are believed to shelter Al Qaeda.

Soldiers displayed passports seized in the operation, among them a German document belonging to a man named Said Bahaji. That matches the name of a man thought to have been a member of the Hamburg cell that conceived the 9/11 attacks. Bahaji is believed to have fled Germany shortly before the attacks in New York and Washington.

COMMENT:  We have to be cautious here, but the key question is whether this evidence was found in a Taliban or Al Qaeda stronghold.  We are being told by the smug set that they are separate, that we should be going after Al Qaeda rather than the Taliban, but the linkage between the two could easily be strong.  After all, the Tals gave Al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan.

This warrants much further inquiry, by the press and by our intelligence services.  The relationship between the Taliban and Al Qaeda clearly must play a role in our future strategy in the region, especially as the Taliban is threatening the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

October 30, 2009    Permalink

IRAN DESCENDING - AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  In all the hoopla over the health-care plan, which, of course, will ultimately save us and let us live forever, too many souls are forgetting the drama being played out with Iran. 

Iran is developing nuclear weapons.  Nuclear weapons change everything.  They change the way the world looks, and feels, and is.  Mr. Obama has chosen "engagement" with Iran, as if the leader of Iran were the coach of the visiting basketball team.  It isn't working out.  In an extraordinary statement, the EU this morning took a tough stand toward Tehran, tougher, alas, than the one offered by our president lite:

The European Union is urging Iran to stick by a deal that would limit its uranium enrichment.

EU leaders complained in a draft statement discussed at a summit Friday about "Iran's persistent failure to meet its international obligations."

Teheran is considering a plan proposed last week at talks involving Iran, the US, Russia and France.

But a Western diplomat in Vienna said Thursday that Teheran had rejected the plan, which calls for Iran to export most of its enriched uranium, offering instead to enrich it to a higher level inside the country under UN supervision.

In the statement, EU leaders also said they "deplore the continued violations of human rights in Iran" and urged Iran to release EU citizens and employees of European missions charged or held in Iran.

European diplomats and US officials were quoted by the New York Times on Thursday night as saying that Teheran had informed the UN of its decision, but had not provided a reason for backing out of the draft agreement formulated during a conference in Vienna last week.

However, the sources said that the Iranians had objected to the main component of the plan, which called for a large quantity of its uranium stockpile to be transferred to Russia, where it would be enriched into metal fuel rods before returning to the Islamic republic.

COMMENT:  All right, Mr. Obama, if you could take a few minutes out from the important work of playing basketball and golf, or going on another endless campaign trip, maybe you'd like to decide on our next step with Iran - that is, after you dispense with the pesky business of Afghanistan.

October 30,  2009    Permalink