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.

I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr.'s talk show from Dallas yesterday.  The link is here.

FEBRUARY 22,  2011

OBAMA'S DISGRACEFUL SILENCE ON LIBYA – AT 10:03 P.M. ET:  Compared to the chap who runs Libya, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was a pussycat.  And yet, Obama ferociously went after Mubarak, demanding that he step down.

But when it comes to Libya, Mr. Obama seems less outraged than he does by the governor of Wisconsin.

Obama's silence has been a major theme around the internet today, and on some news programs.  Foreign news organizations, especially the Brits, have begun to notice.  From Britain's Telegraph:

Once again, the White House has fluffed its lines on the Arab revolution. With Gaddafi’s helicopter gunships strafing his own people, with corpses piling up on the streets of Tripoli, President Barack Obama has remained silent.

Gaddafi is an enemy of America.  Mubarak was an ally of America.  Notice the difference in the treatment.

There must be many, many people in Libya who are fence-sitting at the moment; the right words of support from the president of the United States could make all the difference to a tribal leader, an army colonel, the head of a provincial lawyers’ guild uncertain about throwing in their lot with those already brave enough to take to the streets or disown Gaddhafi.

We used to be a beacon of light.  Now we're a beacon of Obama.

Libya provides an opportunity to divert from the script now prepared for the rest of the Middle East – condemning violence, calling for restraint and respecting the rights of protestors. Col Gaddhafi may not listen to the US, which has little or no leverage on his oil-rich fiefdom, but that is even more reason for the president to forcefully place himself on the right side of history.

The flames of change are already lit in Libya, and the president needs to do his best to make sure they blow in the right direction.

COMMENT:  I dread to ask what the phrase "right direction" means to our current White House.  That may be the question of the decade.

February 22, 2011      Permalink

CHICAGO UPDATE – AT 9:59 P.M. ET:  Rahm Emanuel has been elected mayor of Chicago.  This ends the Daley era, unless some cousin named Daley turns up.

February 22, 2011       Permalink

BULLETIN – AT 8:59 P.M. ET:  CNN is projecting that Rahm Emanuel will win the Chicago mayoralty outright tonight, avoiding an April 5th runoff.

We stress that this is a projection.  We will continue to follow the actual votes of all voters, living or dead. 

This is an important election.  The mayor of Chicago has always been an important political figure nationally, and often has more real political power in the key state of Illinois than does the governor.

February 22, 2011      Permalink

POLITICAL SHIFTS – AT 9:45 A.M. ET:  Democrats can no longer count on some previously solid blue states, but Republicans aren't necessarily the immediate gainers.  From The Politico:

More than a dozen blue states turned purple between 2008 and 2010, Gallup found in its analysis of party affiliations in daily tracking polls.

Based on the party affiliations that people provided to pollsters, 14 states were considered solidly Democratic in 2010, with Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents outweighing Republicans by at least 10 percentage points. In 2009, that number was 24, and in 2008, when President Barack Obama was elected, 30 states were solidly Democratic by Gallup’s measure.

But a shift away from the Democratic Party hasn’t necessarily brought a windfall to the GOP. In 2008, four states were considered solidly Republican and another one leaned Republican. In 2010, five states were solidly Republican and another five leaned Republican, meaning that people identifying themselves as Republicans and Republican-leaning independents outnumbered Democrats by more than 5 percentage points and fewer than 10 percentage points.

Most of the melt from solidly blue states was toward the purple, the states Gallup considers “competitive.” In 2008, 10 states were in that category. In 2010, Gallup counted 18. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of states that leaned Democratic rose from six to nine.

COMMENT:  Once again we are reminded of the fact that, while Americans are turning away from the Democrats in droves, the GOP isn't exactly loved.  To become loved it needs 1) to develop a positive, clear and optimistic message and 2) it needs to find a presidential candidate who can lead and inspire, and draw people to the GOP, not just away from the opposition.

I don't see that person yet.

February 22, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:09 A.M. ET: 

Via my friend, Iranian rights activist Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi:

So you thought people in this country named their children oddly, with names like "Apple", "Rumer" and "Mathew" with one "T," but one man in Egypt may have topped them all.  Inspired by the role Facebook played in the recent protests and ultimate overthrow of Egypt's president, the twenty-something year-old man felt a need to express his thanks, and did so by naming his newborn girl "Facebook."

Look, it could have been much worse.  Imagine if Microsoft Office 2011 was the big player in the revolution.

February 22, 2011       Permalink

AND NOW OHIO – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  The situation in Wisconsin is deadlocked, and now a new center of conflict emerges – Ohio.  Our Midwest is beginning to look like the Middle East.  We wonder where the revolution will come next.  Ohio appears to be the new Wisconsin.  From Fox:

The next focus of demonstrators protesting collective bargaining reforms should be Columbus, Ohio where thousands, if not tens-of-thousands, of protestors are expected to gather Tuesday and shout their views about a controversial bill that puts labor unions in the crosshairs of a determined governor intent on salvaging his state's financial situation.

The protests should look and sound much like the ones from Madison, Wisconsin that have gripped the nation in the recent days and marries an uncomfortable economic reality with political opportunity.

"It's to put our children first. It's to do the things without regard to political considerations and try to serve the public," Ohio Governor John Kasich told FOX News late Monday afternoon from the same building where demonstrators will rally Tuesday. "And if we get that done; we balance our budget--$8 billion in the hole--without a tax increase and we've cut taxes on income taxes, that's going to send a message to the rest of that country that if they can do it [in Columbus], they can do it in their state and they maybe, guess what, they might actually be able to do something like this in Washington."

Well said...from a guy who probably has national ambitions.

While the broad pictures of Wisconsin and Ohio are similar with declarations of impending economic disaster and cures of pension and collective bargaining reform, a closer look at the proposals in both states reveal a significant difference.

The Wisconsin reforms don't cover all public employee unions. Firefighters and police officers, for example, aren't on the hook in the Badger State but all unionized state and municipal employees in Ohio are subject to the reforms proposed in Senate Bill 5, which would strip the collective bargaining rights of all public workers.

"We have a very tight budget statewide and our local governments have....budgets and expenditures that are blossoming out of control," state Senator Kevin Bacon explained to FOX News. "And part of that is because of the current collective bargaining contracts in place."

COMMENT:  Stand by for action.  I wonder if President Obama will compare Kasich to Mubarak.  I would not be shocked.

Meanwhile, the first serious national polling on Wisconsin, by Rasmussen, shows 48% supporting the governor, 38% sympathetic to the unions, and the rest undecided.  That may not seem like a lopsided endorsement of the governor, but please remember that the Democratic base hovers at around 30%, so the protesters in Madison aren't getting much above that base. 

February 22, 2011       Permalink

LIBYA THIS MORNING – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  Libya is a ghastly scene, from all that we can gather.  It is very hard to get precise information out of that closed country.  Blood is flowing in the streets, but so is the hypocrisy of world" leaders":

CAIRO (AP) — The bodies of slain protesters were left on the streets of the Libyan capital Tuesday and frightened residents hunkered down in their homes as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi sought to crush anti-government demonstrations by shooting on sight anyone outside, residents and an opposition activist said.

Amid the crackdown, a defiant Gadhafi appeared on state TV in the early hours Tuesday to show he was still in charge, brandishing a large umbrella and wearing a cap with fur ear flaps, and denying reports he had left the country.

The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi, and his regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors abroad and even some officials at home. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing sources inside the country, said Tuesday that at least 250 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in the crackdown on protesters in Libya, though its officials said the true number was not known.

Sickening.  The high commissioner for what?  Libya sits on the UN's "Human Rights Council."  Even though a total dictatorship, there was no serious challenge to its membership.  Hey, oil talks.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the toll at at least 233 killed, based on contacts with Libyan hospitals — but their toll did not include casualties from crackdowns in Tripoli since Sunday night, a sign of the difficulty of getting information out of the highly closed North African Nation.

The head of the U.N. agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population "may amount to crimes against humanity."

We're so deeply impressed by her sudden concern.  This woman is one of the biggest collaborators with evil at the UN.  Is she shocked, shocked, by the brutal putdown of demonstrators? 

The first major protests to hit an OPEC country — and major supplier to Europe — sent oil prices soaring to more than $93 a barrel Tuesday, and the industry has begun eyeing reserves touched only after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 1991 Gulf War.

Let's be blunt:  That's all most people care about when the word "Libya" comes up.

World leaders also have expressed outrage. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Gadhafi to "stop this unacceptable bloodshed" and said the world was watching the events "with alarm."

Please notice that Barack Hussein Obama Jr. has not issued a single statement.  He was very quick to condemn Mubarak, an American ally, and quicker still to condemn Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin.  But when it comes to enemies, Obama is out to an extended lunch.  It is a revolting spectacle to watch.

And Secretary Clinton's statement did not even call for regime change.  What an absurd, embarrassing administration.

February 22, 2011       Permalink 

CHICAGO, CHICAGO – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  Chicago goes to the polls today to elect a new mayor.  If no one gets 50%, a runoff will be held on April 5th.

Car services have already started taking voters from the cemeteries to the polls.  For those of you who live in Chicago and want to see Aunt Gladys again, go to her polling place.

The overwhelming favorite is Rahm Emanuel, the boisterous former chief of staff to President Obama.  No other candidate even comes close in opinion surveys.  But will Rahm get the 50%?  His poll numbers have been hovering just below that level.  If he doesn't win outright today, the runoff could get ugly, with ethnic resentments playing a major part.  The race card is not just played in Chicago, it is embraced and relished. 

But no one seriously believes that Rahm Emanuel won't be the next mayor, anointed either tonight or on April 5th.  Some of his opponents are rumored to be seeking political asylum in Wisconsin.  Since Illinois gave asylum to escaping Democratic legislators from Wisconsin, who crossed state lines to avoid voting on Governor Scott Walker's reform package, it's only fair that Wisconsin reciprocate.  Displaced candidates' camps are already being established in Madison.

Stand by for the vote count tonight. 

February 22, 2011     Permalink

FEBRUARY 21,  2011

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL NEWS – AT 9:29 P.M. ET:  Libya is in flames.  There have been reports during the day of soldiers firing on protesters, and even reports of air attacks against demonstrators.  And yet, we now know that some Libyan fighter pilots defected, flying their planes to Malta.  Libya's deputy UN ambassador denounced his own government on television, clearly putting his own life at risk.

Observers estimate that hundreds have been killed.  Britain's foreign minister speculated that Libyan leader Gaddafi might be in Venezuela, but the supreme commander denies it:

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has dismissed reports that he had fled amid the unrest sweeping the country, calling foreign news channels "dogs."

Speaking to state TV from outside a ruined building, he asserted: "I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela."

UK Foreign Minister William Hague had said he had seen information suggesting Col Gaddafi was on his way to Caracas.

Col Gaddafi's statement came after security forces and protesters clashed in the capital for a second night.

Witnesses say warplanes and helicopters fired on protesters in the city. To the west, sources said the army was fighting forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.

Earlier, the newly established General Committee for Defence said its forces would cleanse Libya of anti-government elements.

A statement described the protesters as "terrorist gangs made up mostly of misguided youths", who had been exploited and fed "hallucinogenic pills" by people following foreign agendas.

Gaddafi's son has promised a bloodbath unless the demonstrations stop.  They show no sign of stopping.  Many died today.  Tomorrow promises to be critical.  Perhaps the most important question:  How many members of the armed forces will defect?  Also, will Gaddafi be forced to flee, as Mubarak in Egypt was?  That may well depend on whether the security forces around him remain loyal.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

WE WERE WONDERING ABOUT THIS – AT 8:58 P.M. ET:  What, we ask, will be done to those "doctors" in Wisconsin who are writing fake illness notes so teachers can skip school?  The answer cometh:

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is investigating whether some of its doctors wrote fake sick notes to people protesting the governor's plan to strip public union employees of the right to collectively bargain.  

Over the weekend, FOX News reported that doctors from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine were manning a doctor station to write medical notes excusing those protesting at the Wisconsin State Capitol from work. Physicians were seen standing on a street corner wearing lab coats and giving out medical notes. 

"This involves a few individuals out of the nearly 1,300 physicians at UW Health," Lisa Brunette, Director of Media Relations for the school said in an email."These UW Health physicians were acting on their own and without the knowledge or approval of UW Health, she continued. "These charges are very serious and in response the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation, two of the entities that comprise UW Health, will immediately launch an investigation of the reported behavior. The investigation will identify which UW Health physicians were involved and whether their behavior constituted violations of medical ethics or University of Wisconsin and UW Health policies and work rules."

Whether?  WHETHER?  They have to investigate "whether" writing a fake medical note breaches ethics?  Boy, that must be some tough ethical code.

Many protesters could be in violation of their work contracts if they call out sick without a medical excuse. But a fraudulent doctor's notes could protect them from punishment by their employers even though they weren't sick and were out protesting.

Is that a serious statement?  A fraudulent doctor's note could protect them?  It truly is the People's Republic of Wisconsin.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

OBAMA SINKING IN RASMUSSEN POLL – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama enjoyed a brief bump in the polls recently, but now he's dropping back to the levels he was at through most of 2010.  From Rasmussen: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18 (see trends).

Yesterday and today mark the president’s lowest ratings since mid-December. It remains to be seen whether this is merely the result of statistical noise or a change in perceptions of President Obama. For most of 2010, more than 40% of voters voiced Strong Disapproval of the president. However, following his December agreement with Senate Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts, the level of Strong Disapproval had declined.

And...

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-five percent (55%) disapprove.

COMMENT:  I'm not so sure that Obama's unhelpful entry into the Wisconsin dispute will do much for him in the polls.  Observers noted that he denounced the governor of Wisconsin faster than he denounced Hosni Mubarak.  And his rigid pro-union position – a position that will net him union political contributions – cannot be popular at a time when public-service unions are seen as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

But, as we've noted before, there are no guarantees here.  The GOP still has to choose a candidate to run against Obama, one of the best campaigners in memory.  No obvious candidate, no bookmaker's favorite, has emerged.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 8:55 A.M. ET: 

From London's Daily Mail:   President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle have not been invited to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.  The Queen personally invited 40 heads of state, who received the gold-embossed invitations over the weekend to the April 29 wedding of the future king.  The Obamas, however, were not among them.

I expect my invitation in the mail tomorrow.  My gift will be postage stamps sufficient for Britain to send back to America that bust of Winston Churchill that Obama threw back at them when he took office.  We'll find a place for it, a very safe place.

February 21, 2011      Permalink

WELL LOOK AT HIM NOW – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  British Prime Minister David Cameron made large waves recently by denouncing, in very vigorous terms, the curse of multiculturalism which, in its alliance with the Marxist left, is turning Britain into a basket case. 

His speech was Churchillian.  We didn't know he had it in him.  Now, Cameron does it again, raising the prospect that the West may be developing a real leader.  Charlotte Hays of the conservative Independent Women's Forum reports on Cameron's daring trip into Egypt:

It's Presidents' Day-and I'd like to take this opportunity to praise a man who is leading bravely in difficult times. His nation faces unprecedented financial challenges and the world is erupting on his watch. And yet...he leads.

Alas, I do not refer to President Obama.

David Cameron just became the first Western leader to visit Cairo since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak. The U.K. Telegraph reports that Mr. Cameron is "urging Egypt's new military leaders to make good on promises of full democracy."

And, unlike some leaders I could name, Mr. Cameron recognizes what non-secular force is most inimical to hope for a democracy in Egypt:

Mr. Cameron was also due to meet members of the anti-Mubarak opposition, but not members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest political organisation in the country.

Some Western analysts say the Brotherhood promotes extremism, and Mr. Cameron said he had deliberately chosen to meet non-Brotherhood members of the opposition in order to bolster them and their role in post-Mubarak Egypt.

He said that it was not inevitable that open elections in the country would lead to a government dominated by the Brotherhood.

"This is not an Islamist revolution, it not extremists on the streets," the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Cameron said that he believed the "huge ties of history and culture" between Britain and Egypt put him in a good position to make the case for greater freedom and democracy in the country.

Wow. Mr. Cameron is even proud of his island nation's history.

It's odd. Cameron came to power with a divided government, having to share power with another party, and he came across as just the sort of vaguely foppish Old Etonian who might very well be unequal to the challenges of a perilous world. By contrast, Barack Obama assumed the presidency as the world's darling, with a government skewed dramatically in favor of his party.

And yet...

Cameron doesn't seem to be the kind of leader desperate to get on the right side of history. Instead, he wants to do the right thing. He is grounded enough to know that the Muslim Brotherhood is a threat and bold enough to go to Egypt to try to bring about a good outcome for Egypt and the world.

COMMENT:  Cheers for David Cameron.  Unfortunately, he can't run in American presidential elections.  You have to be a native-born American for that, at least most of the time.  (Okay, okay, I was making a joke.)  But Cameron is showing the kind of spine that Obama lacks, and demonstrating why Obama has become a vast disappointment and laughing stock. 

At another critical time in history, it took a British prime minister to lead the way out of the darkness.  Are we seeing a worthy sequel?

February 21, 2011       Permalink

COMBAT IN WISCONSIN – AT 8:03 A.M. ET:  Reports from the People's Republic of Madison indicate that neither side is backing down.  Many Dem lawmakers have crossed state lines into the welcoming arms of the tax authorities of Illinois, so they don't have to go back to the Wisconsin legislature and actually vote on serious spending proposals.  Are these legislators still being paid?  From Fox:

Wisconsin Republicans on Sunday upped the pressure on Democrats who fled to Illinois to return home and vote on an anti-union bill, with the governor calling them obstructionists and a GOP lawmaker threatening to convene without them.

Gov. Scott Walker said the 14 minority Democrats who left Madison on Thursday were failing to do their jobs by "hiding out" in another state. And Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said his chamber would meet Tuesday to act on non-spending bills and confirm some of the governor's appointees even if the Democrats don't show up -- a scenario that should outrage their constituents.

Senate Democrats acknowledged that the 19 Republicans could pass any item that doesn't spend state money in their absence. The budget-repair bill they have been blocking requires a quorum of 20 senators to pass, while other measures require only a simple majority of the chamber's 33 members.

Nonetheless, Democrats said they were standing firm in their opposition to the budget-repair bill, which would take away the right of most public employees to collectively bargain for their benefits and working conditions. Hundreds of protesters filled the Capitol for a sixth straight day, noisily calling on Walker to drop the plan they consider an assault on workers' rights.

COMMENT:  If Scott Walker wins this battle, he emerges as a national figure.  But we have not yet seen serious polling in Wisconsin to assess the strength of the competing sides in public opinion.

Reports this morning indicate that the union protests are being led by teachers, many of whom are refusing to go into the classroom while the fight with the governor is underway.  This will not endear them to parents.

The whole issue of the legitimacy and desirability of public-employee unions is coming to a head in Wisconsin, with a possibile confrontation expected next in Ohio.  The key question:  Will the unions overplay their hand and face a severe backlash?  Some news reports say that the union movement is split, with some urging caution and compromise and others favoring the kind of confrontation we're seeing on the streets of Madison.  No outcome clear at this hour.

February 21, 2011       Permalink

LIBYA IN FLAMES – AT 7:24 A.M. ET:  Oh, the agony.  All those oil executives who, just last week, were licking the boots of Libya's brutal ruling family, are now making plans to leave the country.  And I'll bet there's plenty of sweating going on in foreign ministries, including our own, over fears that diplomatic messages will fall into the hands of protesters, revealing the extent of Western collusion with one of the worst regimes in the world.

Libya burns this morning, as Fox reports:

CAIRO – Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time. Muammar al-Qaddafi's son vowed that his father and security forces would fight "until the last bullet."

Even as Seif al-Islam Qaddafi spoke on state TV Sunday night, clashes were raging in and around Tripoli's central Green Square, lasting until dawn Monday, witnesses said. They reported snipers opening fire on crowds trying to seize the square, and Qaddafi supporters speeding through in vehicles, shooting and running over protesters. Before dawn, protesters took over the offices of two of the multiple state-run satellite news channels, witnesses said.

A major government building in the capital was on fire Monday morning, a Reuters reporter said. The building is where the General People's Congress, or parliament, meets when it is in session in Tripoli.

Smoke was also rising from two sites in Tripoli where a police station and a security forces bases are located, said Rehab, a lawyer watching from the roof of her home.

The city on Monday was shut down and streets empty, with schools, government offices and most shops closed except a few bakeries serving residents hunkered down in their houses, she said, speaking on condition she be identified only by her first name.

COMMENT:  Although clashes continue elsewhere in the Mideast, with eyes on Bahrain and Yemen, Libya has become the main event, the new Egypt.  Even as the young Qaddafi vowed that blood will run in the streets, with thousands shot – he's not considered a neat date – protesters continue to press their case.

But...what is their case?

Again we must caution readers that all this excitement may or may not end well.  There are already disturbing signs in Egypt that the Islamists are starting to move in on the "revolution."  Tunisia, to its credit, is having an open debate on the role of Islam in that society.  Remember that there is no tradition of democracy in the Arab world.  Remember also that most revolutions go sour.

We watch carefully.

February 21, 2011     Permalink