Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

My weekly chat with Silvio Canto Jr is here.

JUNE 15,  2011

ROMNEY GAINS – AT 9:27 P.M. ET:  A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows important new gains for Mitt Romney.  From The Politico:

Mitt Romney has put some distance between himself and the rest of the GOP field, claiming nearly a third of the primary vote in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

When tested against a group of nine other candidates, Romney takes 30 percent of registered GOP primary voters. His closest competitor is Sarah Palin, at 14 percent, followed by Herman Cain at 12 percent, Rick Perry at 8 percent, Ron Paul at 7 percent and Newt Gingrich at 6 percent. Four other candidates – Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman – are below 5 percent.

In a smaller field of six candidates – himself, Paul, Bachmann, Santorum, Gingrich and Pawlenty – Romney's lead grows even more formidable, to 43 percent.

COMMENT:  It's early.  The poll also shows that President Obama would win, if the election were held today.  But, as some political analyst once said, if the election were held today I'd be very surprised.

Romney is moving into frontrunner status.   He now has a target on his back, and the other candidates will soon start sniping at it.  I wouldn't take these early polls too seriously.   Besides, this poll was taken before Monday night's debate.

June 15, 2011       Permalink 

WHAT DOES CANADA KNOW ABOUT BILL AYERS? – AT 8:54 P.M. ET:  Canada is a pretty liberal place, but it is barring Obama pal and radical academic Bill Ayers from entering the country.  This is a serious step, and raises questions as to what Canada knows about this man.  Obama, during the 2008 campaign, acted as if he hardly knew Ayers, but subsequent reporting by those brave enough to do it suggests that the relationship was a lot stronger than we'd been led to believe.

Recently, Ayers retired from the University of Illinois, but was denied some of the privileges of a retired professor due to the intervention of one of the children of Robert F. Kennedy.  Ayers had included Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, in a list of those to whom he'd dedicated a book.  This man, Ayers, was permitted to teach our children.

The Canada part of this is intriguing.  From the National Post of Canada:

Former American radical Bill Ayers has once again been barred from entering Canada.

Mr. Ayers was scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the Worldview Conference on Media and Higher Education this Thursday in Toronto. Conference organizers say Mr. Ayer’s refused entry should “should raise red flags for citizens concerned with free and open debate.”

“Bill Ayers is a respected academic, and in no way a threat to the peace and security of Canada. There is no reason why he should be kept out,” said Mark Langer, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), who is hosting the event.

The fact that he's a "respected academic" should raise questions about who wins respect in today's academic world.

Mr. Ayers was barred from entering Canada in 2009 after touching down at Toronto City Centre Airport. At the time, he said he had entered Canada dozens of time before without incident.

Mr. Ayers has hired Canadian and American lawyers in unsuccessful attempts to lobby the Canadian Border Services Agency for passage into the country. Advised by his lawyers that he would likely be held at the border, he did not attempt a crossing this time around.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, a radical group that collaborated on a series of bombings aimed at banks, monuments and government buildings, including the Pentagon and US capitol.

Nobody was killed in Weather Underground attacks, although members did paralyze at least one man.

And...

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, foreign nationals are barred from entering Canada if they were involved “in criminal activity, in human rights violations or in organized crime.”

COMMENT:  I'd like to know more about this, but I'd also like to know more about the relationship between Ayers and Obama.  One writer, Jack Cashill, has concluded from an impressive study that Ayers wrote one of Obama's two books.  I have no independent way to confirm that, but the argument is strong.

We can't depend on the mainstream media to look more deeply into Ayers, whose wife, Bernardine Dohrn, was also an extremist, and was on the lam for years.  She teaches at Northwestern University. 

Do you know who's teaching your children?

June 15, 2011      Permalink

KING HAS BACKBONE – AT 10:27 A.M. ET:  Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, has withstood the predictable cries of "racist," and is pursuing his investigation into the radicalization of American Muslims.  From WaPo:

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, thinks Muslim Americans are being radicalized in U.S. prisons, and he’s promised a “deliberate and thoughtful examination of the issue” during a hearing on Wednesday.

To which detractors say: impossible.

As was the case with his March hearing on the radicalization of Muslim Americans, the detractors are accusing the congressman of scare-mongering. They see this week’s hearing as being rooted in no more than Islamophobia.

"Islamophobia" is the big word on the political left these days.  If you want to look into guys who wear suicide belts, you're "Islamophobic." 

But as King told Fox News on Monday, there’s “absolutely nothing wrong” with inmates converting to Islam. “The problem,” he said, “is when you get radical Muslims. You get radical chaplains who then radicalize them and turn them toward terrorism or turn them toward violence.”

King is hardly the first person to voice of concern about the radicalization of Muslims in American prisons. FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee six years ago that prisons were “fertile ground” for Islamic extremists. Even before that, in 2003, Sen. Charles Schumer, the Democrat of New York, expressed concern that U.S. inmates were being recruited by followers of the ultraconservative brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.

But for critics, the issue is that the radicalization of American Muslim inmates should not be seen apart from the radicalization of inmates by other groups. And experts note that in U.S. prisons, for generations, there’s been plenty of radicalization to go around, from the Aryan Brotherhood to the Latin Kings to the Black Liberation Army.

That's a red herring.  These other groups require investigation as well.  But that should not deter Peter King.  Radicalization of Muslims is of a different order, in that it involves possible linkages with foreign groups and foreign nations, and often involves extreme plots.

King is to be commended over the way he's stood up to the abuse, and the usual leftist vocabulary.  Since 9/11 he has been one of the stalwarts in the fight against terrorism. 

June 15, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET – AT 9:46 A.M. ET: 

From London's Telegraph:  An American town is preparing to celebrate a light bulb that has been glowing more-or-less continuously since 1901.  The four watt bulb, installed in a fire station in Livermore, California, has been declared the oldest known working light bulb by the Guinness Book of World Records.

And imagine, our greatest challenge now is to get the bulb over Barack Obama's head to stay on for more than five minutes a day.

BLEAK ECONOMY – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  Not only are we facing an employment crisis, but those who are employed are finding it harder and harder to afford basic goods.  Prices are rising faster than forecast.  From Bloomberg:

The cost of living in the U.S. rose more than forecast in May reflecting higher prices for everything from autos to hotel rooms, signaling raw-material expenses are filtering through to other goods and services.

The consumer-price index increased 0.2 percent, compared with the 0.1 percent median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The so-called core measure, which excludes more volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.3 percent, the biggest increase since July 2008.

Higher input prices are leading companies like McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) to try to pass cost increases onto customers strained by more expensive gasoline and 9.1 percent unemployment. At the same time, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s has repeated that the jump in commodity expenses will prove temporary.

“We’re seeing a broad-based bleed through of energy and commodity price pressures into components throughout the core,” said John Herrmann, a senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets in Boston who correctly forecast the gain in core inflation. “The Fed has to be more adamant about their credibility as an inflation fighter.”

Can America reelect a president who's presiding over all this damage?  Well, some card-carrying members of the pundit conspiracy say that Obama is a shoo-in.  They also say that broccoli-powered cars are ready to go, especially the convertibles. 

What an opportunity for Republicans.  Don't blow it, guys...and gals.

June 15, 2011       Permalink

PERRY SPEAKS – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  One of the big questions in the GOP today is, "Will Rick Perry run?"  Perry, the job-creating governor of Texas, is, in addition to the positive reviews of Michele Bachmann's debate performance, the buzz-man of the week.

Perry spoke in New York last night.  The speech was much anticipated, for one of the concerns about Perry is whether he can play well outside Texas, whether he's "national" rather than "local."  He's created jobs.  That's true.  But he's also rough around the edges, Texas-style, and insists on dredging up social issues that most Americans, in a time of economic stress, may wish to put aside for a time.  Next year's election will be won among independents, not movement conservatives or movement liberals.

Perry's speech in New York didn't address concerns about him.  It was a well-delivered battle cry.  From The Wall Street Journal:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a gathering of Republicans in New York City Tuesday night that he’s proud of driving liberals out of the Lone Star State.

“Looking around Texas, there’s a few unhappy people there – generally we refer to them as liberals – which I happen to think is a really good indicator of our success because we don’t have many of them left,” joked Mr. Perry as he delivered the keynote address at the New York Republican County Committee’s annual Lincoln Dinner.

“I’m proud to call myself a conservative,” Mr. Perry said. “Not only am I proud to be a Texan, I’m proud to be a conservative…because conservatives have won the war of ideas.”

In recent weeks, buzz has intensified about the possibility of Mr. Perry entering the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. At Tuesday night’s dinner, Mr. Perry didn’t discuss the possibility of launching a presidential bid, but he had said earlier in the day that he’s giving the idea “appropriate thought.”

He told the crowd at the Lincoln Dinner that he was pleased to replace Donald Trump as the keynote speaker after the real estate mogul announced he wouldn’t pursue the White House next year.

“I find it kind of ironic tonight that I’m getting to stand here instead, if you would, of The Donald,” he said, referring to Mr. Trump. “That’s pretty cool….He’s known for saying, ‘You’re fired!’ We’re known for saying, ‘You’re hired. That’s what we do in Texas.”

And that's a good line.  We'll have to hear much more, though.  Candidates for the GOP nomination have to run to the right, but in the general election they must appeal to the middle.  The major thrust of Obama's brilliant but deceptive 2008 campaign was to portray himself as the centrist that he is not.  Perry wouldn't have to go quite that far, but he should keep in mind the plight of Rudy Giuliani, who just couldn't travel beyond New York.

June 15, 2011      Permalink

OUR PAKISTANI ALLIES AT WORK – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  The Pakistanis are notorious double dealers, but this takes the prize.  From Fox:

WASHINGTON -- Pakistan's intelligence service has arrested the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe Usama bin Laden's compound before the U.S. raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader, as well as a "handful" of other Pakistanis, a U.S. official said late Tuesday.

In Pakistan, a Western official confirmed a New York Times report that five of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the CIA before the May 2 bin Laden raid were arrested by Pakistan's top military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as ISI.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

The Times, in an article posted on its website late Tuesday, said the detained informants included a Pakistani army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in the weeks before the raid.

COMMENT:  This will certainly encourage other Pakistanis to work with the United States in the war against terror.  You'd think the Pakistanis would be smart enough to look the other way on something like this, and show that they are true allies.  The problem is, they're not.  And it's a problem, considering that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, that can come back to bite us in the worst way.

June 15, 2011     Permalink

JUNE 14,  2011

BUZZ, THY NAME IS BACHMANN – AT 9:37 P.M. ET:  We continue to monitor coverage of last night's debate, and the name that keeps coming up is Bachmann.  Clearly, she changed at part of the nature of the race last evening, and that is major in a presidential campaign.  From The Wall Street Journal:

If the 2012 Republican presidential race now has an established front-runner, it also has a potential spoiler.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's decision to jump into the 2012 field, which she announced during Monday's debate on CNN, could scramble the electoral math in several of the early nominating contests.

Her strengths among Iowa's evangelical and tea-party contingents are likely to make life tough on former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others who need a win in the first-in-the-nation caucuses early next year to propel their campaigns.

"She's going to be a force to be contended with, no doubt about it," said Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman and top Pawlenty adviser, who has known Ms. Bachmann since she entered politics just over a decade ago.

His advice to Mr. Pawlenty: "Treat her with respect."

Others contend that Ms. Bachman, 55 years old, could use a strong showing in Iowa, where she was born, to build an advantage in soon-to-follow New Hampshire and South Carolina.

"If the large tea-party factions start coalescing around her here, she could really end up being a force in New Hampshire, especially if she comes out of Iowa with real momentum," said Kevin Smith, a GOP activist who runs a conservative think tank in New Hampshire.

COMMENT:  Bachmann has also had another effect:  She has made the race much more interesting.  She has a certain magnetism. She's obviously attractive.  She comes prepared, speaks very well, and is a learner.  She has a commanding style.

The inevitable question is whether Bachmann's strong performance will have an impact on Sarah Palin.  I think it has to.  There's room for both women, of course, but they appeal to the same constituency, and that means they must be considered competitors.  You may be sure the old boys' club in the media will play up that part.

More combat ahead.

June 14, 2011      Permalink

YOU HAVE TO LOVE THIS, YOU JUST HAVE TO – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Look, not every story has to be about profound political decisions.  This is a high-tech happy-ending story, and it's great.  From Fox:

Don't get mad, get even.

When Joshua Kaufman's Apple MacBook was stolen from his apartment in Oakland, Calif, he didn't throw up his arms in despair. Instead, Kaufman turned on an app called Hidden that allowed him to surreptitiously photograph the thief -- and ultimately catch him.

On Wednesday morning, the Okaland police busted the crook, thanks to the series of incriminating photos Kaufman posted to a blog, thisguyhasmymacbook.tumblr.com, and reunited him with his stolen property.

"An Oakland police officer just called me to let me know that they arrested the guy in my photos! BOOYA!" wrote Kaufman exuberantly after hearing the good news.

"The police used my evidence (email which pointed to a cab service) that he was a driver and tricked him into picking them up. Nice work OPD!"

Kaufman claims he took the data to police but had no luck getting them to help, until he posted the photos online. He says police contacted him after his efforts went viral.

COMMENT:  Go to the link in the story, which actually shows the photos, bottom of the page, that the software took of the alleged thief.  Ah, modern technology.

June 14, 2011       Permalink

IS THIS PATHETIC, OR WHAT? – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  In the United States Navy they refer to Britain's Royal Navy as "the senior service," a sign of respect for a navy that once ruled the waves.   Now, consider this, from London's Telegraph:

The British military intervention in Libya is unsustainable, the head of the Navy has said.

Adml Sir Mark Stanhope said the campaign would have been more effective without the Government's defence cuts.

The aircraft carrier and the Harrier jump-jets scrapped under last year's strategic defence review would have made the mission more effective, faster and cheaper, he said.

Sir Mark warned that the Navy would not be able to sustain its operations in Libya for another three months without making cuts elsewhere.

The First Sea Lord's comments will stir the debate over defence cuts that have left Britain without a working aircraft carrier and forced the Royal Navy's Harrier jump jets to be mothballed.

Highlighting military anger over the shrinking Armed Forces, another admiral warned that "comical" defence cuts would leave the Navy without enough ships to be effective.

How sad, how sad.  Britain is a symbol of what's happened all over Europe – defense cuts made to fuel the welfare state, without any understanding that a strong defense is what allows any nation to exist at all.  As we've said here, there's the great Britain, and the not-so-great Britain.  The latter is winning, even with nominal conservatives in power.

Britain has a great defense minister in Liam Fox, whom I've had the privilege of meeting.  His vision is a strong Britain, firmly allied with the United States.  But Britain has a left wing that won't budge, and will become a defense backwater before too long.

I'm sure they'll even send James Bond into retirement.

June 14, 2011      Permalink

OBAMA CAMPAIGN FLOP – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  This is one thing we usually don't see with Obama – a failed campaign rally.  You can be sure there'll be hell to pay at the White House.  But if this is an indication of things to come, Obama can be in real trouble.  From the Politico:

MIAMI, Fla. -- A low-dollar fundraiser here Monday felt like a throwback to the 2008 campaign.

There was the same old soundtrack – including “City of Blinding Lights” by U2, the president’s 2008 anthem -- the enthusiastic organizers and the abundant appeals for supporters to rally behind President Obama.

The one missing element? Overflowing crowds.

Granted, it was a fundraiser, not a free rally. But the empty seats were hard to miss.

The top level of the 2,200-seat concert hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts was entirely empty, as were the seats along the side of the second and third levels.

"The expectation was 900," a Democratic official said, and more than 980 tickets were sold.

That's damage control. 

Tickets for the Gen 44 event started at $44, the official said.

COMMENT:  Obviously, the shortage of people was caused by global warming.  Or was it Bush?  Or Cheney?  Or Bush's economy. 

By the way, among other gems delivered by the president was a line claiming he isn't given to partisan rhetoric.  You can start laughing now, and finish at the end of the year.  This guy is the most partisan bird I've seen in a long time.

Obama is vulnerable.  The talk on the internet this morning is that Republicans, more and more, want a winner, not an idealogue whom they can cheer in defeat.  That's good.  Good thinking.

June 14, 2011      Permalink

THE DEBATE – AT 7:39 A.M. ET:  I realize that many readers may not have been with us as we live blogged the GOP debate last night.  Let me give you my impressions, and a review of what I've seen from others:

The format was bad, things went by much too quickly, and there were too many candidates on the platform.  However, we got some strong impressions.  If there was a "winner," it was Michele Bachman.  (She spells it with one "l".)  Michael Barone sums it up:

Michele Bachmann. The rap against her is that she is inspirational but sometimes make statements she cannot defend. I don’t think she did that in this debate. On the contrary, she was well prepared with specifics. She defended the tea parties as part of the three-legged stool of national security, cultural conservative and free market economic conservatives—the definition of the conservative movement pioneered by William F. Buckley many years ago. She managed to tell viewers that she was a tax lawyer and that she raised three children and provided homes for 23 foster children—I don’t care how cynical you are; that’s impressive. She deftly quoted then-Senator Barack Obama—a voice more eloquent than mine—on the debt limit. She said that as president she wouldn’t go into states and lobby against allowing same-sex marriages and she brushed aside as numerically insignificant the question—always raised by liberals like CNN moderator John King—about abortions in cases of rape and incest. She used her seat on the Intelligence Committee to make her point that there is no vital American interest in Libya and quoted Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker piece on how an Obama insider said he was “leading from behind.” An impressive performance.

And if there was a strong survivor, it was Mitt Romney.  As the assumed "frontrunner," he was the target, but the rest of the group went easy on him, and he answered questions with brief, substantive replies.  He may not have gained much, but he didn't lose anything.  Again, Barone:

Overall Romney showed a clear sense of command and directed well-aimed attacks at Barack Obama and his administration. He was well prepared for the format and did better than I thought.

The disappointment was Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota.  His job was to break out of the second tier, and make himself better known, but didn't do it.  As for the others, I just don't think they have a realistic chance at the nomination.

Important individuals were not there.  Governor Rick Perry of Texas wasn't there.  Neither was former Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah.  Perry would be an instant, serious contender if he gets in, but I must tell you that, the more I read about him, the more reluctant I am.  Yes, he has a great jobs record in Texas, but he tends to sound a bit on the fringe a times, and more local than national.  I don't know if he'll travel well.  He's speaking in New York today, and we should get a taste of Rick Perry without a Texas backdrop.  As for Huntsman, it's currently "Jon who?"  He served as Obama's ambassador to China, which won't sit well with the GOP base.  How can you serve a president and then run against his policies?

On balance, it was Mitt's and Michele's night last night.   I agree with Barone that Romney was better than we'd thought he would be.  Can Michele be taken as a serious candidate?  If she continues with the kind of solid performance she gave in the debate, yes. 

This is only the start.  More action ahead.

June 14, 2011     Permalink