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DECEMBER 3,  2010

THE SILENT ISSUE – AT 9:57 P.M. ET:  We're traveling, and I commented just yesterday that this could be a major silent issue in the 2012 presidential campaign.  From Fox:

With oil prices climbing near highs for the year above $88 a barrel Friday, energy analysts predicted that oil could rise to $120 a barrel before the end of 2012, adding more fuel to the debate over offshore drilling.
It's hard to say exactly what that would mean for motorists buying gasoline since the price of gas depends upon a number of different variables, including the region, retail prices and local and state taxes, AAA told FoxNews.com.

But the current national average price of gas is $2.90 as of Thursday, according to AAA's website. And in July 2008, when oil prices was above $145 a barrel, the national average price of gas was $4.11.

The rise in oil comes on the same week that the Obama administration announced it will not allow offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic coast for at least seven more years because of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April that killed 11 workers and unleashed about 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf.

That decision was cheered by environmental interests and Democratic lawmakers along both coasts but slammed by Republicans and the oil and gas industry who say the move will kill jobs and make America even more dependent on foreign oil.

COMMENT:  The unemployment rate, we learned today, has risen to 9.8 percent.  If it does not decline, and the price of gasoline soars, our economic mess will be even greater, and it's hard to see how Obama can explain it away.  With his reckless ban on offshore drilling, Obama must take responsibility for at least part of the rise in oil prices. 

No one wants environmental damage.  But the recent Gulf spill "disaster" turned out to be not quite the catastrophe that some alarmists apparently wished for.  That is not to minimize it, or the responsibility of those involved.  But to use that case as a reason for the massive moratorium on offshore drilling seems grossly absurd, and a cave in to Chicken Little and his army of pessimists. 

If we're at 10 percent unemployment and $4.25 a gallon in 2012, Mr. Obama will be joining Jimmah Carter as a pensioner, and will probably do as much mischief as the peanut guy from Plains.

December 3, 2010       Permalink

THE WIKI THING IS WACKY – AT 4:25 A.M. ET:  We've wondered here at Urgent Agenda how the WikiLeaks leaks actually happened.  Apparently, many others are wondering as well, and they're not getting satisfactory answers.  From the Washington Times:

The State Department and other U.S. agencies are not fully cooperating with lawmakers' efforts to probe the WikiLeaks security breach, according to the Republican likely to be the next chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican and a senior member of the intelligence committee, said government officials seem "more concerned about their department's reputation than the consequences [of the leak], and that is a big problem."

And it always has been, and always will be.

"They've been obstructionist up to this point," Mr. Rogers told The Washington Times. "They need an attitude adjustment."

He joins a growing chorus of Democrats and Republicans who are finding fault with the government's post-Sept. 11 information-sharing system, which aims to push intelligence reporting toward the front lines of the war on terrorism.

"Clearly, the rush to share everything with everyone has gone too far," Mr. Rogers said. "Clearly, there'll be changes."

When I was in intelligence work, decades ago, we employed the "need to know" principle. You were only given information that you absolutely needed to know to do your job.  Now we find out, via this Washington Times story, that "a half-million people have access to the network that was reportedly compromised - a classified Pentagon computer system called SIPRNet."

No wonder our secret documents are all over the world, and on every significant desk.

Look, we want maximum intelligence sharing to be sure we don't have another disaster like 9-11.  We learned after that tragedy that different agencies had bits of information about the plotters, but weren't permitted to share it.  But sharing has to be done with some care and common sense.  Apparently, both those things are in short supply in some precincts.

I'm glad to see Congress getting actively involved.  The members seem considerably more agitated than the smug members of the mainstream media, too many of whom only seemed interested in finding some juicy gossip in the leaked papers.

December 3, 2010       Permalink

WHILE THE WORLD SLEEPS – AT 3:44 A.M. ET:  While the world naps, and Keith Olbermann attacks Bristol Palin, serious people are worried about serious things.  From The Wall Street Journal:

VIENNA—The Obama administration told the United Nations nuclear watchdog that North Korea likely has built more than one uranium-enrichment facility, significantly raising the proliferation threat posed by the secretive communist state.

U.S. and European officials are pressing the International Atomic Energy Agency to better scrutinize Pyongyang's potential role in sharing its nuclear technologies with third countries. But the U.N. agency's ability to monitor Pyongyang is limited: North Korea kicked out the IAEA's inspectors in 2009.

Oh, that's okay.  Jimmah Carter said last week that North Korea really truly, cross-their-heart-and-hope-to-die wants to negotiate.  Aren't you encouraged?

The IAEA already is investigating evidence that North Korea transferred a nearly operational nuclear reactor to Syria, which Israeli jets subsequently destroyed in 2007. U.S. and U.N. officials now worry Pyongyang could begin exporting its advanced centrifuge equipment to its military allies in Iran and Myanmar.

"A uranium enrichment capability in [North Korea] could bolster its pursuit of a weapons capability and increases our concerns about prospects for onward proliferation of fissile material and of sensitive technologies," Glyn Davies, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, told the agency's 35-member board Thursday.

Mr. Davies said the U.S. believes Pyongyang may have already developed uranium-enrichment facilities beyond the one site it showed a visiting American scientist, Siegried Hecker, last month.

COMMENT:  And this is after years of negotiations and commitments by Pyongyang.  Now the North Koreans are facing a weak American president and an American population tired of overseas commitments.   But the law of averages here is very much against us.  Sooner or later, we are going to wake up to a mushroom cloud somewhere in this world, and realize the implications for us.  If you think security at airports is tight now, you ain't seen nothin'.

December 3, 2010       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 3:31 A.M. ET:  You know, you can go after a candidate for public office, but going after the candidate's kids is pretty low stuff...except, apparently, at MSNBC.  Keith Olbermann recently attacked, not Sarah Palin, but her daughter, Bristol.   But Bristol snapped back at the Olber-bully, and we cheer, very loudly:

Bristol Palin has used her Facebook page to hit back at MSNBC's Keith Olbermann for his Monday night declaration that the eldest Palin daughter was his "Worst Person in the World."

Olbermann was criticizing Palin, who is a teenage mother, for her role as an abstinence advocate.

Proving herself a surprising wordsmith, Palin wrote, "Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard. What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with insincere incredulity. Mr. Olbermann fails to understand that in order to have credibility as a spokesperson, it sometimes takes a person who has made mistakes."

She continues: "I have never claimed to be perfect. If that makes me the 'worst person in the world' to Mr. Olbermann, then I must apologize for not being absolutely faultless like he undoubtedly must be."

COMMENT:  Good for you, Bristol.  What was Olbermann thinking?  Well wait.  That assumes he thinks.

Rule of thumb in show business:  Never follow a children's act or an animal act.  Rule of thumb in politics:  Never criticize someone's child. 

FDR once made mincemeat of the Republicans in a now-classic speech defending "my little dog, Fala," who had gotten a ride on a Navy destroyer.  The press ate it up.

I suspect that Olbermann, right now, is researching someone's hamster.

December 3, 2010      Permalink 

DO YOU FEEL SAFER THIS MORNING? – AT 3:03 A.M. ET:  Just to assure you that the most dangerous among us are under constant watch, constant guard, deprived of the privileges routinely granted to their legitimate fellow citizens.  Ah, the inspiration:

Reporting from Sacramento — Contraband cellphones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress.

This will do wonders for LG's reputation.  Is an endorsement deal in the works?

Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.

Now wait.  How did he get a cell phone account?  Do his minutes roll over from one month to the next? 

Asked whether Manson had used the device to direct anyone to commit a crime or to leave a threatening message, Thornton said, "I don't know, but it's troubling that he had a cellphone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf."

Although officials say inmates use smuggled cellphones for all manner of criminal activity, including running drug rings from behind bars, intimidating witnesses and planning escapes, it is not a crime to possess one in a California prison.

I've worked among Hollywood agents and producers.  The word crime has a somewhat flexible meaning out there.

Prisoner-rights advocates argue that cellphones let prisoners avoid high fees for making collect calls from prison pay phones — the only allowed method of phone communication, with all calls monitored — and help them maintain crucial bonds with family and friends while they serve time.

But family contact can cut two ways, prison officials say. In September, an inmate at Avenal State Prison in Central California had been calling his 75-year-old mother to get her to collect drug debts owed by customers on the street. After guards found the phone, police raided the woman's La Puente home and found more than $24,000 cash, said Doug Snell, a corrections department spokesman.

That's a heartwarming story.  Family businesses are the rock of America.

COMMENT:  Hey look, it's a prison.  They are called cell phones.  Maybe this was just a misunderstanding.

December 3, 2010     Permalink

DECEMBER 2,  2010

GETTING IT STRAIGHT – AT 8:34 P.M. ET:  Writing this from Maryland, a state that insists on remaining Democratic.  Teams of mental health workers are being rushed to Baltimore and will be available on mobile vehicles.

It's bizarre, but the administration is continuing to downplay the importance of the Wiki wickedness.  Small potatoes, major bigshots say.  Investors Business Daily, in an editorial, points out that foreign nations aren't seeing it quite that way:

"We should never be afraid of one guy who plopped down $35 and bought a Web address," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, taking the cake for absurdity. "Our foreign policy is stronger than that . .. . We're not scared of one guy, with one keyboard and a laptop."

On that logic, as wags from Lucianne.com noted, atomic particles wouldn't worry him either, and Joseph Goebbels was merely a man with a microphone.

And now for a more mature, post-freshman view:

The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. sources abroad are drying up, with WikiLeaks only erratically redacting source names.

How this could not amount to a crisis for U.S. diplomacy is beyond us. Pretending there's nothing to be alarmed about might work if the U.S. were dealing from a position of strength. But Assange is sitting on thousands of stolen documents he has yet to release. He already knows from his letters that the U.S. wants him to stop.

Now that he sees U.S. officials pretending there's no problem, he can chalk it up to their political game-playing. But Assange himself is an enemy, not a political opponent. He is not playing games.

COMMENT:  Well said.  The administration's assurances are embarrassing.  Foreign nations now know that they can't trust the United States with their comments and their secrets.  And some foreign leaders now know what our government really thinks of them.  Great way to get results.

The president himself should come forward and admit what the mess has caused.  And he should outline what his administration is doing to make sure that this kind of security breach never happens again.  But we haven't heard from Mr. Obama.

December 2, 2010     Permalink

INCREDIBLE – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  Amazon, the book-and-everything-else giant, made the correct decision in removing WikiLeaks from its site.  Now the political left, claiming free speech, is outraged:

The internet giant took action after coming under pressure from right-wingers in the US to stop hosting the site, which this week published tens of thousands of confidential diplomatic e-mails.

I love the term "right-wingers."  Apparently only "right-wingers" are outraged by these damaging leaks.  I believe that both the White House and Hillary Clinton denounced them.  Right-wingers?

Joe Lieberman, chairman of the senate homeland security committee, called on other companies to end their links with the website.

He said: ‘WikiLeaks’ illegal, outrageous, and reckless acts have compromised our national security and put lives at risk around the world.’

Correct.

But Amazon now faces protests from free speech campaigners, who say it should be ‘punished with boycott’ at what is its busiest trading period of the year.

In other words, deny Amazon its free speech rights.  The hypocrisy flows.

I suspect a lot of these "free speech" advocates are actually just traditional lefties who would be first in line to deny free speech to anyone who disagrees with them.

December 2, 2010      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 5:19 A.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government investigator says nearly 50,000 prison inmates claimed more than $130 million in tax refunds this year without providing any wage information to the IRS.

So what's the big deal?  Aren't they victims of an oppressive society?  Don't they deserve the refunds as a form of reparations?  And don't some people really think this way?

December 2, 2010      Permalink

MAJOR GOP MOVE, AND A GOOD ONE – AT 5:12 A.M. ET:  Hispanics are the fastest-growing group in America.  In terms of culture, they should be natural Republicans, but aren't.  The GOP, though, in one of its new initiatives that seeks to upgrade and modernize the party, won't accept that situation.  Good, good.  From The Politico:

Alarmed by the GOP’s alienation of Hispanic voters, a group of operatives and former elected officials has launched a bid to wrestle the party’s image back from illegal immigration foes – and it’s led by a Republican named Bush.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has teamed up with former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who served in former President George W. Bush’s Cabinet, and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), a one-time supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, to restore the Republican Party’s standing with this fastest-growing segment of the electorate.

The newly formed Hispanic Leadership Network marks the first major outreach effort by the wing of the Republican Party that believes it must change its tone towards Hispanics to stand any shot of winning back the White House in 2012. It’s backed by Republicans connected to the Bushes and Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, a group whose big-tent philosophy has been usurped in recent years by the tough rhetoric of illegal immigration opponents.

COMMENT:  Good move.  With newly elected Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and newly elected Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, the GOP has two great anchors for demonstrating its appeal to the Hispanic community.  Now it must come up with a thoughtful, imaginative immigration policy.

Oh, do I see Jeb Bush mentioned here?  Jeb Bush?  Brother of one president, son of another?  Wasn't he the guy, former governor of Florida, who said he wasn't interested in being president?  And now he's plunging back into politics in a major-league way.  Hmm.  How far off is 2012?

December 2, 2010      Permalink

LET'S GET THE PAPERWORK DONE, GUYS – AT 4:46 A.M. ET:  Pursuing the rogue at the head of WikiLeaks appears to be a growing priority among some, but not all, law-enforcement agencies.  Aside from releasing highly damaging documents that can get real people killed, he is also wanted in Sweden on a sexual assault charge.  It seems that paperwork may be holding up his arrest.  From Fox:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reportedly is hiding in Britain and police know his whereabouts but have refrained from acting on an international arrest warrant on rape allegations because Swedish authorities made a mistake when filling out the paperwork.

The 39-year-old Australian computer hacker has been out of public sight since a Nov. 5 news conference, but supplied British police with contact details upon his arrival in October, Britain's The Independent newspaper reported Thursday.

The paper cited police sources who said they knew where Assange was staying and had his telephone number. It added that it was believed he was in southeast England.

However, a British police source told the Times of London that Assange had escaped arrest because Swedish authorities failed to fill out his arrest warrant correctly.

http://www.urgentagenda.com/PERMALINKS%20V/DECEMBER%202010/02.WIKI.HTML

COMMENT:  Since Sweden is so socialist oriented, the government may have to appoint a commission to fill out the form.  Let them be quick about it.

I would hope our government is pursuing charges against Assange.  I am not an international lawyer, and don't know how that mechanism might work.  (Readers are invited to advise me.)  But the idea that someone could wreak such dangerous havoc with international diplomacy and escape punishment is not rational.

December 2, 2010      Permalink

THIS COUNTRY AND THIS DAY – AT 4:21 A.M. ET:  On this day in 1942, man achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.  The event occurred under the West Stands at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, under the direction of Enrico Fermi.

As a student at that university, I passed those stands almost every day, and sometimes paused to read the plaque:

The Chicago experiment was necessary to develop the atomic bomb.  We feared, with good reason, that the Nazis were working on the same weapon.  On December 2, 1942, victory over Nazi Germany and imperial Japan was by no means assured.  Yes, we had invaded Guadalcanal in the Pacific and North Africa on the other side of the Atlantic, but we were still hobbled by pre-war unpreparedness and unproved military leadership.

Enrico Fermi himself was a refugee from fascism.  Because his wife, Laura, was Jewish, he was forced to leave Mussolini's Italy.  His contribution to his adopted country was vast, and irreplaceable.  He was also a fine teacher of physics...and other things.  (He taught my wife's cousin how to ice skate.)

When I think of walking past that historic site, and the enormity of the effort this country put into winning World War II, it becomes that much more unnerving to read, as I have in the past few days, opinion columns declaring that America is in sad decline.  And it is true that, led by Barack Obama and his leftist choir, we do appear to be slipping away badly.

But don't believe it.

The last time we went through such a period of self-doubt was during the Carter administration more than 30 years ago, especially in the months following our failed attempt to rescue American hostages being held by the new, radical Iranian government.  I recall the leader of my daughter's Girl Scout troop wondering out loud whether this was still a capable country, whether we could still accomplish things.  After all, we'd been told by the press that we'd "lost" the Vietnam War just four years earlierr.

But, not too long afterward, Ronald Reagan was elected president, and our spirit was revived by a man who truly believed that it was always morning in America. 

We yearn for another Reagan right now.  We may or may not find him.  But we, as Americans, have always had a resourcefulness, an ingenuity, described well by Eisenhower in "Crusade in Europe."  We will succeed and grow again in greatness to the extent that we will it, in each home and county.

The one thing that can stop us, though, is an educational system, unique in our history, that is rotting the brains of our young.  If there is a single step we can take to reverse America's presumed decline it is to demand reform in our schools, and in the schools that teach our teachers.  No, we don't insist on an empty-headed nationalism or simplistic flag waving.  But we should insist on a teaching of this country's history that includes its glory as well as its defects, its vast appeal to the world as well as its errors.  More people want to come to America as immigrants each year than want to come to all other nations of the world combined.  We retain our magnetism.  If we will it, we will retain our greatness as well.

December 2, 2010     Permalink