THURSDAY,  JANUARY 15,  2009

NO BIAS?  ARE WE SERIOUS HERE? - AT 11:20 P.M. ET:  Here is a headline on the MSNBC website:

Poll: Solid support for Obama's economic plan

And here are the actual poll results:

According to the poll, 43 percent believe the stimulus is a good idea, compared to 27 percent who think it’s a bad one, and 24 percent who don't have an opinion.

COMMENT:  That's solid support?  Does someone at MSNBC need to take basic math?

SUCH CLASS, AT 7:54 P.M. ET:  Ultra-liberal PBS talk-show host Bonnie Erbe, says farewell to President and Mrs. Bush in her typical classy manner, at a US News blog:

To me, the most telling point is that Stepford Wife Laura Bush is flooded with agent requests to sell her memoir to publishers, but no one's really interested in what The Legacy has to say. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

COMMENT:  This is the kind of "comment" we've had on the left for eight years.  Please notice that the critiques of Mr. Obama from the conservative side tend to be on a much higher, more thoughtful level.  Let's keep it that way. 

I'M BETTER BECAUSE I WAS BAD - AT 7:27 P.M. ET:   Eric Holder, Jr., nominee for attorney general, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, which is weighing his nomination. What I saw was a classic example of Hollywood logic and Washington ethics.

It's common in Hollywood for executives who've failed to go on to better, higher-paying jobs.  It's called "failing upward."  The argument is that, "yes, Freddie produced 74 flops in a row, but that gave him the kind of experience he needs to succeed.  And he deserves to have his salary doubled because of all the pain he's felt.  He's earned it."  This argument is presented seriously, and taken seriously. 

We heard that from Holder today.  Sure, he conceded, he was wrong to okay the Marc Rich pardon in the last days of the Clinton reign, but the blunder will simply make him a better attorney general and nobler person.

So, readers, if you really want to get ahead in this world, use Hollywood logic as interpreted by Eric Holder, Jr.  Just make a lot of mistakes.  Come in late.  Screw up.  Then say that you've been chastened by your experience.  You're wiser, a better person.  And demand a raise.  And see what happens.

Oh, by the way, Holder refused to rule out prosecuting members of the Bush administration for "illegal" activities associated with the war on terror.  That will really inspire our intelligence services, law enforcement, and the military, to know that they have an administration that backs them.  Why is there cheering in the mountains of Pakistan tonight?

Holder will be confirmed.  Let's hope it doesn't take another 3,000 deaths on American soil to make him a better lawyer and finer person.

NO ORNAMENT TO GOOD GOVERNMENT - AT 4:30 P.M. ET:  From The Washington Post:

WASHINGTON -- Roland Burris took his place as Barack Obama's successor in the Senate on Thursday, ending a standoff that embarrassed the president-elect and fellow Democrats who initially resisted the appointment by scandal-scarred Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

COMMENT:  More change we don't have to believe in.

REAL TURNAROUND - AT 4:21 P.M. ET:  Some good news - the Dow rebounded and actually closed up 12, to 8213.

DOW DROPPING - AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  The Dow is down 150, to 8050.  The question is whether it will descend through the psychological 8000 mark.

SOBRIETY

Posted at 10:38 a.m. ET

Karl Rove, who's been there, presents a sober view of what Barack Obama will face on Tuesday.  Once Chris Matthews and his associates finish with the gushing, the adjectives, the religious comparisons, Mr. Obama will have to govern.  As Rove suggests, that's the part they don't include in the travel brochure.  He considers the presidential aides:

What these aides will soon realize is that they aren't history, but passing through it. I learned that from an elderly man who told me "to honor the house" as he emptied my trash bin late my first day at work.

That is what an administration owes the country. But it is not all it owes. There is also the matter of governing. Team Obama is about to learn that it's easier to campaign than to govern.

Right.  And maybe they'll develop some appreciation of George W. Bush.

In fact, they are already learning it. Last February, Congress passed a stimulus bill, adding $152 billion to the deficit. Mr. Obama called it "deficit spending" and criticized the "disdain for pay-as-you-go budgeting" in Washington. Now he forecasts trillion dollar deficits on his watch. Mr. Obama, the candidate, criticized the "careless and incompetent execution" of the Iraq war. But as president-elect, he decided to retain George W. Bush's defense secretary and put a Bush adviser in charge of the National Security Council.

The real world closes in.  The Daily Kos and MoveOn.org are not the real world.

Mr. Obama also tripped himself up by sending advisers to Capitol Hill on Dec. 18 to say that he wanted a stimulus bill to cost between $670 billion and $770 billion, but that he would accept $850 billion. This invited Congress to roll him and spend more.

But...

Mr. Obama can recover. But he has to avoid loosing his footing again by allowing Congress to enact its wish list instead of policies that will help the economy. He seems to be mistaking what may be good ideas for economic stimulants.

Rove is right.  Many of the ideas coming from Congress are being proposed just to satisfy interest groups.

There is also the question of the practicality of Mr. Obama's own proposals and projections:

Take the "green jobs" he promises. There are 6,856 people who work for companies that make solar cells in America and 2,150 people who work for the biggest wind equipment maker. Mr. Obama says he'll create 459,000 new "green energy" jobs like those. Can he really do that? A lot of people will be keeping score.

Finally...

Mr. Obama says 244,000 of his new jobs will be in government. Will these new government employees disappear when the economy recovers? Or is Mr. Obama pushing the largest expansion of government since LBJ's Great Society?

For all the pride America can have next Tuesday, these issues are real and not going away. The inauguration is a moment of constitutional significance and important symbolism. Team Obama should enjoy it. As I can attest personally, it won't last long. By the next day, the realities of governing will intrude.

Words of wisdom from someone who's been on the inside, looking out, which is where Team Obama will be Tuesday afternoon.

January 15, 2009.      Permalink          

THE MAN WHO WILL PRESIDE OVER THE IRS - AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  Although he will probably be confirmed, the tax embarrassment of Treasury Secretary designate Timothy Geithner becomes greater with each revelation.  It now turns out that, while employed by the International Monetary Fund, he was reimbursed for taxes he was supposed to pay, but never did.  How could he accept the reimbursement, then claim he didn't know the taxes were due?  Byron York, at National Revue Online, notes:

Although it has been dismissed by some observers as a “hiccup” in an otherwise smooth confirmation process, treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner’s failure to pay self-employment taxes during the years he worked at the International Monetary Fund is causing some Republicans on Capitol Hill to ask serious questions about his actions. First among those questions is why he accepted payment from the IMF as restitution for taxes that he had not, in fact, paid.

COMMENT:  Many Republicans like Geithner, and they may not make too much of a fuss.  But Geithner won't enter office as a great role model, that's for sure.

SCHOOL DAYS, UN STYLE - AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  From Joel Mowbray at Fox News:

The United Nations agency that administers a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire last week has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information.

COMMENT:  Our UN contribution at work.  The disgraces of the UN go on, yet nothing is done about them.  There are UN agencies that work hard to advance the worst causes, but the media is much more upset by Christian evangelicals. 

COLLEGES MAKE THEIR OWN RULES - AT 7:51 A.M. ET: From AP: 

Most high school seniors and their families have not made final college plans for next fall. But they know this: It's probably going to cost more than they had planned.

Even in good economic times, states and colleges have largely failed to hold tuition increases in line with inflation. Now as the slumping economy forces states to slash spending, students can expect the sharpest increases in years.

COMMENT:  Let me sound off on this.  I have the highest regard for quality instruction, but it's time we took a hard, cold look at the "college education," probably the most oversold product in America.  We treat colleges as sacred institutions, ask few questions and make few demands.  The new, sharp rise (again) in college costs should prompt some congressional hearings, with demands for cost-cutting and the scaling back of the endless number of feel-good programs and courses.  One Urgent Agenda reader suggested that we start with any academic department with the word "studies" in its title. 

IF YOU THINK WE HAVE IMMIGRATION PROBLEMS NOW - AT 7:33 A.M. ET:  From the El Paso Times:

EL PASO - Mexico is one of two countries that "bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse," according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.

The command's "Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)" report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. "In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico."

COMMENT:  Welcome to the State Department, Hillary Clinton. 

WE MUST SHARE WITH OTHERS - AT 7:04 A.M. ET:  From The Hill:

President-elect Obama’s evident distrust in sharing with Congress sensitive information about the internal workings of his administration has begun to irk Democratic committee chairmen...

...Ten committee chairmen in the Senate and House said that Obama’s advisers did not alert them ahead of time about the incoming president’s Cabinet selections. Nine of them learned of the picks from the media, even though the Senate committee chairmen have confirmation authority over them.

COMMENT:  More and more, it appears that some of Obama's most serious conflicts will be with Democrats, not Republicans.  Already there is friction.

THE COUNTDOWN

FIVE DAYS TO THE AGE OF OBAMIUS

Posted at 6:44 a.m. ET

In five days the world will be enriched by the inauguration of The One.  The Sun will come out again, and remain out.  Evil will be banished.  Our 401K's will be filled to overflowing.  And that's only on the first day.

We can report the following developments:

- Rounding out his meetings with journalists of different beliefs, Mr. Obama had lunch with members of the vegetarian press.  He spoke about his warm feelings for beets.

- Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden will say goodbye to the Senate in special speeches this morning.  Clinton is going to the State Department.  Biden is going to an undisclosed location.

- The White House announced that the increased security needed for the Obama inauguration was made financially possible when Treasury Secretary designate Tim Geithner paid his back taxes.

- CIA Director designate Leon Panetta said that he will be disguised among the flowers on an inaugural-parade float, so he can keep an eye on the crowd and detect any major threats to the nation.

- Obama's press secretary announced that President Obama will repeal "Don't ask, don't tell."  This will clear the way for liberals to serve openly in the armed forces.

- Obama plans to visit the Pentagon, which is on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, by walking across the water.  He denied that this was showing off.

January 15, 2009.      Permalink          

WEDNESDAY , JANUARY 14,  2009

GOP HOUSE REVOLT

Posted at 4:56 p.m. ET

There's a revolt brewing among House Republicans about the Bush administration's request, joined by Mr. Obama, to release another $350-billion in bailout funds.  It's about time.  There has never been a greater need to ask tough questions.   From The Washington Times:

House Republicans are planning to vote against President Bush's request to release the second $350 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Minority Leader John Boehner said Wednesday morning.

Mr. Bush, at the urging of President-elect Obama, earlier this week asked Congress for the additional chunk of TARP funds so that Mr. Obama would have them on hand by the time he takes office next week. But Republican leaders say that would be irresponsible when it is still unclear how the first half of the money has been spent.

Exactly. 

"We don't know what the demonstrated need is for the next $350 [billion], nor do we know what their plan is for using it. And so I do think this request is premature, and I and most of my colleagues on the Republican side will oppose it," he (Boehner) said.

Finally, some spine.  The irresponsible behavior of many of the "banking executives" who got the first bailout bundle, especially their refusal to say how it's being spent, absolutely dictates the new GOP stand. 

In a Wednesday morning appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to indicate that Congress would approve the incoming president's request, since the money would be spent by "a president who'll enforce the law." But she stopped short of predicting that Congress would vote to release the funds.

Sounds like there may be trouble on the left bank as well.

January 14, 2009.      Permalink          

BIN LADEN SPEAKS

Posted at 4:21 p.m. ET

The terror master greets the administration of Barack Obama with some well-chosen words.  ABC News reports:

In a direct challenge to President-elect Barack Obama, Osama bin Laden questions whether America "is capable to keep fighting us for more years" in a new audio message attributed to him Wednesday morning on an internet website.

A senior U.S. official told ABCNews.com, "There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the tape."

Bin Laden is picking up on a favorite theme of the political left - that we're an exhausted nation.  It is a theme of those who want us to lose.

Today's message begins with a call for a jihad against Israel because of its attacks on Gaza but concludes with a challenge to the U.S., and implicitly the incoming Obama administration.

"Now America is begging the world for money," bin Laden says, "and the USA will not be as powerful as it used to be."

Our response must be defiance, even if that offends the Daily Kos.

"The majority of the U.S. people are happy to get rid of Bush, Bush left for his successor a heavy heritage, the hardest part of heritage is guerilla wars," bin Laden says.

Guess he's feeling the heat from those missiles we fire just inside Pakistan.

During the campaign, Obama said the capture or death of bin Laden, and the defeat of al Qaeda, would be one of his administration's highest priorities.

We wish every success.

January 14, 2009.      Permalink          

DOW NO WOW - AT 4:18 P.M. ET:  Preliminary figures show the Dow closed down 248, to 8,200.

IMAGINE IF HE WERE A REPUBLICAN - AT 3:49 P.M. ET:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama called disclosures about Treasury choice Timothy Geithner's tax problems an embarrassment Wednesday but said Geithner's ''innocent mistake'' shouldn't keep him from confirmation as the new administration's top official in urgent efforts to revive the economy.

The revelations that Geithner had failed to pay $34,000 in taxes several years ago derailed Senate Democrats' plans to speed him to confirmation by Inauguration Day, but senators in both parties said the information was unlikely to torpedo his chances in the end.

COMMENT:  And Richardson had to withdraw for ethical reasons.  And Obama's replacement in the Senate comes in under an ethical cloud.  And Attorney-General designate Eric Holder has a whole set of ethical issues.  And Hillary Clinton has some serious problems with gifts given to her husband's foundation by foreign governments.  And...  What smooth transition?  But please don't disturb MSNBC.

DOW NOW - AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  The Dow is down 223 to 8,224.

GRIM DECEMBER - AT 10:15 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

Retail sales fell in December for a sixth consecutive month, the government reported on Wednesday, as Americans holstered their credit cards and cut back on spending, even as stores offered discounts of 80 percent to entice shoppers.

Sales at department stores, restaurants, gas stations and a host of other retail businesses fell 2.7 percent last month — nearly double what economists had been expecting — and were 9.8 percent lower than sales last December, the Commerce Department reported.

COMMENT:  Problem - people short on cash, afraid to spend.  Solution - quick tax cuts.

Y'SEE, THE BATTERIES IN THE CALCULATOR WENT DEAD - AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  From The Politico:

Democratic and Republican senators say a full-court press by Barack Obama’s transition team is likely to keep ethical questions from sinking the nomination of Treasury Secretary-designee Timothy Geithner.

As Obama pressed senators on his economic recovery plan Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Geithner had failed to pay $42,000 in taxes and had employed a housekeeper whose work permit had expired.

COMMENT:  It just doesn't look good, a secretary of the treasury with a tax problem.  There's a point where the late-night comedians start to notice. 

WELCOME, ROLAND - AT 9:49 A.M. ET:  From The Politico:

Roland Burris will take his seat in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, but he shouldn’t expect a warm welcome. Republicans are ready to portray Burris as a poster child for all that’s wrong with the Democratic Party, and Democrats aren’t sure that they want to back him if he runs for the seat in 2010.

“That’s hypothetical, and I don’t think I’m going to comment on it,” Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, said Tuesday when asked about supporting Burris in two years.

COMMENT:  The president-elect, whose seat Burris is taking, could have eliminated this problem, but didn't.  It may come back to haunt him.

WHY, HELLO AGAIN - AT 9:23 A.M. ET:  From Fox News:

WASHINGTON -- Terror suspects who have been held but released from Guantanamo Bay are increasingly returning to the fight against the United States and its allies, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Sixty-one detainees released from the U.S. Navy base prison in Cuba are believed to have rejoined the fight, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, citing data from December. That's up from 37 as of March 2008, Morrell said.

COMMENT:  Some sobering statistics to remember when the chant goes up, "Close Guantanamo!"  Maybe the chanters would like to take in some of the inmates, and call them international-exchange students.

REQUIRED READING - AT 7:33 A.M. ET: I commend two articles to you this morning.  Both provide an excellent perspective on the current fighting in Gaza.  More important, they provide a clear view of what we in the West, and in America in particular, are facing when we confront Islamo-fascism, which is very determined to confront us.

Hudson New York does a distinct service in reprinting the Hamas charter here.  It is disgraceful, scandalous, that our so-called "news" media has not reprinted this document as part of its coverage of the war on terror.  It would be like covering the rise of Nazism in the thirties and making no reference to Mein Kampf.

Hamas means it.  That's the message of Jeffrey Goldberg in his well-documented op-ed piece in The New York times, found here.  As we begin a new administration, one committed to diplomacy, we should be reminded regularly of who might be sitting on the other side of the table. 

IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM

Posted at 7:26 p.m. ET

(Some readers have asked why I don't reprint articles I do elsewhere at my own Urgent Agenda site.  Excellent question.  I will be doing more of that, starting today, with this reprint of my piece, "In Defense of Freedom," from the Hudson New York website.)

It is during periods of economic decline that people are most likely to turn to the quick, totalitarian solution. It is during these times that the fascist, or the red, who has waited in the wings or shouted from the audience, tries to take center stage. The rise of fascism in the 1930s in Europe, and the dabbling in Marxism in Western countries during the same time should give us pause. It was common in the thirties, even in the United States, for certain members of the "intellectual" class to advocate that we look beyond old-fashioned American democracy for quicker, more efficient solutions to our problems.

Ronald Reagan gave us a blunt warning: "Freedom," he said, "is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States, where men were free."

Are we in danger now? Are we in danger of slipping into the totalitarian mentality? The answer appears to be yes, and for proof we need look no further than the attitudes toward human freedom that have developed in recent decades, certainly internationally, but, sadly, here at home as well.

“Domestic hate groups are on the rise as the economy falters," Carrie Johnson cautions us in The Washington Post. "Veteran investigators," she reports, "say they have advocated for increased attention to the problem since late September, when the nation's economic troubles widened, giving white supremacists a potent new source of discontent to exploit among potential recruits."

Obviously, that's a worrisome thing. But it's part of a larger pattern, something else that is troubling, especially at a time of economic stress - a certain indifference, even contempt for, the whole idea of human freedom.

We are reminded of these words, from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address:

"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Those words are revered only because they were spoken by a martyred president. If they were spoken by George W. Bush today, they'd be laughed at, ridiculed, or regarded as bellicose expressions of "American imperialism." How do we know? Because Mr. Bush has said essentially the same things repeatedly through his presidency, and look at the reaction. Freedom for Iraq? Why, what right do we have to impose freedom on anyone? And these people aren't ready for freedom. It's foreign to them. An agenda to spread democracy throughout the Mideast? Why, it's not right to think that others would want what we want.

We hear these objections constantly. They generally come from our universities and our media, the very institutions that, one would think, would be the first to champion liberty.

In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It says, among other things, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." When is the last time you saw that quoted? When is the last time you heard any reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? The key word in that title, of course, is "universal." The Declaration held that freedom was an international right, that all the people of the world deserved it. The leaders of free nations in 1948 had no trouble at all with that notion. They had just fought a world war to insure it.

But today freedom is too often seen as a "cultural construct," just one idea among others. And who are we to say that it's better than some other "cultural norm"? If these words are familiar, you shouldn't be surprised. They've been standard fare in American universities since the sixties.

One of the great myths is that freedom is popular. Yes, it's generally popular among ordinary people. But in recent decades it's become increasingly unpopular among some "intellectual leaders." Many colleges have imposed "speech codes" that limit what students can and cannot say. Of course, they impose these codes to create "a more respectful society." Many news organizations make no distinction, in reporting foreign news, between dictators and democrats. It was common, during the latter period of the Cold War, for right-wing dictators to be referred to as dictators, but for left-wing dictators, especially those who ran the Soviet Union, to be called leaders. It was the intellectual fashion, and that fashion has become even more chic.

Ruth Wisse of Harvard has asked, rhetorically, why intellectuals often support the worst causes. We can debate the answers, but the fact is that, today, human freedom has fallen out of favor among some intellectual classes as a cause worth defending. Thus, feminist organizations, outraged if a well-paid lawyer is called "honey" in a courtroom, are silent about the honor killings that go on routinely in Muslim cultures. To denounce them would be to acknowledge Mr. Bush's call for an expansion of freedom and human rights, and that doesn't fit the party line.

So we may be ripe for totalitarian ideas to help us through the economic crisis. With the sharp economic decline, with the constant drumbeat of Bush hatred from the media, with decades in which our college students have been taught that the very heart of American freedom is just a "cultural construct," with journalists educated in those same colleges, we may be primed for the very thing that Ronald Reagan warned against. Of course, Reagan was laughed at by the same institutions that may happily restrict the freedoms that they themselves enjoy. They're very good at laughing. They're not very good at keeping us free.

January 14, 2009.      Permalink          

THE COUNTDOWN

SIX DAYS TO THE AGE OF OBAMIUS

Posted at 6:58 a.m. ET

In six days the Age of Obamius will be upon us.  The stock market will go to 41,000.  Every GM car will sell.  Through the Obama Miracle, all mortgage defaults will be forgiven.  And the temperature of the Earth will stabilize at a comfy level, and never change.

We can report the following developments:

- The Obama transition team went into crisis mode after learning that treasury secretary nominee Timothy Geithner had failed to pay a big chunk of federal taxes.  New slogans were put out immediately:  "He gave himself a tax cut, now it's everyone's turn."  Or, "He'll save for you the way he saved for himself."  Or, "He was trying to force change he could believe in."  Or, "It's nothing compared to Hillary."  It looked like he'd get confirmed anyway.

- The president-elect agreed that CIA Director-designate Leon Panetta must brush up on his professional skills.  Panetta was seen walking into a party at the Pakistani embassy and saying to guests, "Just speak into my lapel."

- Caroline Kennedy was gently chided for saying that, if appointed senator from New York, she'd bring in Barack Obama to campaign.  An Obama official said that Kennedy should understand who's running things.  She responded, "I do understand, and I take the responsibility seriously."

- Attempts to compare Obama with Lincoln continued, but the Secret Service ordered Mr. Obama to stop splitting rails in his hotel room, after other guests complained about the noise.

- President-elect Obama announced that people who'd been instrumental in getting him elected had been invited to submit drafts of an inaugural address.  He said the contribution from the publisher of The New York Times was quite wonderful.

- Joe Biden met with leaders in Iraq.  The leaders were surprised, though, when he walked into a room wearing a button saying, "Hello, my name is..."

January 14, 2009.      Permalink